Day 25 - Recreational/Sport - HaYarkon Park

By: Ben

Although my team again hasn't followed our schedule, and hasn't posted what we've done for the last 3 days to the blog, I'm sure they'll do so before this week's assignment is due. Consequently, I have no idea where we are at as far as money spent so far...

I decided that we should go and visit Tel Aviv's largest park, Yarkon Park.

Much of the information about the park is taken from Wikipedia

The Yarkon Park (Hebrew: פארק הירקון‎, Park HaYarkon) is a large public urban park (3.8 km²) in Tel Aviv, Israel, host to 16 million visitors annually.^[1] Bounded by Rokach Boulevard on the north and Bavli on the south, the park includes extensive lawns, sports facilities, botanical gardens, an aviary, a water park, two outdoor concert venues and artificial lakes.One of the park's main attractions is Tel Afek and its Ottoman-period fortress, Binary Bashi, overlooking the springs of the Yarkon River. Binary Bashi was built in 1571 on top of an ancient tell. The fortress offers a view of the Rosh Ha'Ayin springs, which flow at the foot of Tel Afek. On the eastern part of the tell are the remains of a pumping station from the British Mandate period, used to transport spring water to Jerusalem.

The park has six gardens: Gan HaBanim (Fallen Soldiers Memorial Garden), Gan Nifga'ei HaTeror (Terror Victims Memorial Garden), Gan HaSlaim (Rock Garden), Gan HaKaktusim (Cactus Garden), Gan HaGazum (Trimmed Garden), and Gan HaTropi (Tropical Garden).

The Rock Garden, one of the largest of its kind in the world, reflects Israel's geological diversity. In its 10-acre (40,000 m²) enclosure the rocks are interspersed with some 3,500 species of plants, including over 6 acres (24,000 m²) of cacti. The 5-acre (20,000 m²) Tropical Garden has a wooden walkway shaded by palm trees leading to a small lake. The rainforest-like microclimate is supports a large variety of orchids and vines.

The Yarkon River runs through the park and reaches the Mediterranean Sea at the park's western edge. Despite clean-up efforts in the last few years, the river is still polluted. Nevertheless, the region has retained its biodiversity. It is home to an abundance of insects, water fowl, jackals, porcupines and mongoose. ^[2]

Our overall impression of the park was that it was very similar to New York's Central Park. The HaYarkon Park is over land that has immense value and could be utilized for housing, manufacturing, and business. However, the park is a haven for a number of different activities and we enjoyed strolling around and people and animal watching. It is a shame that much of the park seems littered with trash, and the majority of the water is polluted. Maybe we need to send some NCSU PRTM majors to Tel Aviv to get them straightened out!!!

During the course of the day, we were able to partake of food and beverages from kiosks scattered throughout the park. They were very similar to the types of kiosks that we would see at the North Carolina State Fair, which we know is currently going on back at home! There were no deep fried candy bars and soda at these kiosks, though. We were only able to buy things like lamb and breads and coffee.

Total cost of the day was $650 sheckels.