Ilan Aharoni Israeli tour guide

12/08/2026

I'm often asked what my favorite place to guide is. Honestly, I don't have one.
But I do have a favorite moment — it's when I feel my tourists are "getting it."
Yesterday, that moment wasn't in the history or the workshop. It was in the people. The coffee shop workers who chatted with everyone in our group. And a soldier on an educational tour — when my client told him he should visit the USA sometime, he just smiled and said, "I'm not getting out of Israel."
That's it. My tourist was blown away. The love for the people and the land,in one sentence.
I never expect highlights. Israel provides them. A guide's job isn't to fill every moment with history and explanation — we had plenty of that yesterday, and it was great. But sometimes the real job is to step back and let the land and the people do the magic themselves.
That's exactly what happened.
📍 Gush Etzion — ceramic workshop, a lookout point, visiting communities, connecting to Israel,and a lot of good conversations along the way.

10/08/2026

A small clay mold — it reminds us of a verse in Jeremiah.

Found in the Kishleh excavation, Jerusalem. In Jeremiah 7:17-18, God calls out households baking cakes for the "Queen of Heaven" — idolatry woven into everyday life, not some distant ritual.

This is what that world may have looked like.

📸 Photo credit: Emil Eljam, IAA

05/08/2026

Saw the Great Isiah scroll today. Pretty amazing.

03/08/2026

The fire Jeremiah saw:

Underneath the City of David in Jerusalem, archaeologists just uncovered something extraordinary: charred wooden roof beams from a building that burned nearly 2,600 years ago — during the Babylonian conquest of 586 BCE, the same destruction the prophet Jeremiah witnessed and lamented. Wood almost never survives that long. This did, because the heat was so intense that the building's plaster melted and sealed it in, and archaeologists can now use it to date that layer of history with real precision.

"The Chaldeans burned the king's house and the house of the people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem." (Jeremiah 39:8, ESV)

One clarification, because I've seen this passed around inaccurately online: these beams aren't physical remains of the Temple itself. They're from a building in the City of David — one of "the houses of the people" Jeremiah describes — destroyed in the same Babylonian campaign that also brought down the Temple on the Temple Mount nearby (that destruction is recorded separately, in 2 Kings 25:9). The real story doesn't need any exaggeration: you're still standing a few meters from a fire that Jeremiah lived through and wrote about.

That's the difference between reading about the Bible and walking through it. When you come to Jerusalem, I want you to see exactly where these layers of history sit — and understand precisely what they are, not just what a headline claims.

Photo credit :Reut Vilf,City of David

12/07/2026

The story behind the song

18/10/2025

I met Marc Turnage about 15 years ago . I wanted to start guiding Christian tourists,and was introduced to him . This started a friendship that has improved my life and it started a professional relationship that improved my career.

For two years ,we couldn't do what we love to do .

It wasn't easy ,but I always said that bringing the hostages back is the most important.

Now,thank God,the living ones are back .(Waiting for EVERYONE to be returned!)

Today we started a group together. Feels great.

Here you can see Marc teaching in Magdala

06/10/2025

𝙎𝙒𝙄𝙈𝙈𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙄𝙉 𝙎𝘾𝙍𝙄𝙋𝙏𝙐𝙍𝙀
The Hidden Pages of the Sea of Galilee

This is the side of the Sea of Galilee you don't always see: Camping by the water, full of kids' laughter. We spend hours swimming, splashing each other, and just cooling off from the heat.

Later, the hours are spent by the grill. We all gather around the fire, cooking and eating, enjoying great company with friends and family. That gentle sound of the water touching the shore is the perfect background.

You get that strong afternoon breeze that blows across the lake, and then the deep quiet of the night. The beautiful sunsets and the moonlight reflecting perfectly on the water.

This is when the gratitude hits me. As an Israeli tour guide, I realize I am literally swimming in scripture. Right here is Capernaum, over there is Bethsaida, and nearby are Geshur, Magdala, and Korazin.

Behind every Bible story is a hidden part.the one made of the places you can still visit and the simple human experience that was happening then, and is still happening now.

I hope I get the chance to show you this hidden side of the land.

(Inspired by a long friendship with Marc Turnage . His way of studying and teaching the bible helps enter the reality of scriptures)

18/06/2025

sees

08/06/2025

26/04/2025

Caesarea National Park, Israel