Mount Carmel, a wooded coastal ridge running down to the Mediterranean at Haifa, is sacred across several traditions at once, from the prophet Elijah to a Catholic order to the Bahai Faith.
Elijah on the mountain
In the Hebrew Bible, Carmel is the mountain where the prophet Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal and called down fire to prove the God of Israel, one of the most dramatic scenes of the prophetic books. A cave near the shore is venerated as Elijah's by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, and the mountain's association with him underlies its sanctity across the Abrahamic traditions.
The Carmelites
The Carmelite order of the Catholic Church takes its name and origin from the mountain, where European hermits gathered in the twelfth century, during the Crusader period, to live a contemplative life in imitation of Elijah. Driven out, the order spread across Europe and became one of the great contemplative traditions of Western Christianity, producing mystics such as Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross; their monastery of Stella Maris stands on the northern headland above Haifa.
The Bahai World Centre
On the mountain's Haifa slope stand the golden-domed Shrine of the Bab and the great terraced gardens of the Bahai World Centre, among the holiest places of the Bahai Faith and the spiritual and administrative heart of that religion; they are a World Heritage site. Few hills carry so many living claims at once, and Carmel remains an active place of devotion for Jews, Christians, Muslims and Bahais together.