Biblical Zoo - mini Tiyul within Jerusalem

Erev Shabbat morning was spent at the beautiful Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem. We traveled just past the mall we’ve become fond of (indoor air conditioning!) and ended up at this amazing zoo. It’s long and skinny versus the San Diego Zoo that is more round and expanded. There is a lot of water built into this zoo that it makes it look so refreshing for the animals.
The first stop was across a wooden bridge over the water where Hadarya could see “duckies,” which were really big birds that dove under the water for food. She thought that was so funny! We actually did see pink beaked ducks too. At the same time the screaming monkeys were making their presence known from the top of their house in the middle of the water on an island.

We then took the rakevet (train) to the top of the hill by the bears. What fun the bears were! There were 4 bears swimming, playing, jumping in the water, and walking around. We stayed for quite a while as they were so active. It was almost lunch time for them so they were pacing around trying to to be patient and wait. One of the bears actually dove off the rock in the middle of the water into the larger pool area. It was so funny to see him jump in! The other larger bear just eased his way into the water.

We then walked our way to Noah's Ark, which is the end of the zoo and the train pick up towards the front. It was very hot but the misters were very nice! We saw elephants and more monkeys. Then we got to the walkway that goes through the biblical animals. Hadarya had a blast running up the wooden walkway towards the lookout points. We were amazed that there were zebras, rhinos, and giraffes all together! They hung out, walked around past each other, moved in separate areas but everything was all connected. It was really cool.

By the time we got the Noah's ark information center we were hot and tired and it was time to leave. We got Hadarya her first popsicle while we waited for the train. It took her awhile to get the hang of it and it was sooo cold on her tongue! It was a really fun outing and a great way to get ready for Shabbat.

The grounds were filled with people sitting on blankets in the shade when we left and it was clear that this was a favorite place people liked to go to.