Safed, Mountain city in Northern Israel
Safed sits at 900 meters above sea level in the Upper Galilee region, offering views reaching Mount Hermon and the Sea of Galilee. The old town spreads across several hills with steep lanes leading to neighborhoods containing religious institutions, artist studios, and residential houses.
The Crusaders built a fortress in 1168 that Saladin later captured and the Mamluks then reinforced for strategic military purposes. After the Spanish expulsion in 1492, Sephardic Jews settled here and transformed the town into an important religious and intellectual center.
During the 16th century, the town became a center for Kabbalah study when Jewish scholars arrived and composed mystical texts. The old synagogues still bear the names of these scholars and serve as prayer houses for worshippers from around the world.
The town maintains numerous religious educational institutions, including yeshivas that offer programs for Jewish studies in both Hebrew and English. The narrow lanes of the old town require comfortable shoes and some time, as the slopes become quite steep in places.
The first printing press in the Middle East was established here in 1578 and produced religious texts that spread across Jewish communities in the region. Many of the medieval synagogues sit below street level because they were built on the foundations of older structures.
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