Luki Scenic Lookout

Hebrew name: Mitzpor Luki

Location: Jerusalem Mountains

Description: The Luki scenic lookout, built in the memory of Avi Jacques Luki, is located on a high branch west of the town of Neve Ilan. KKL-JNF has set five benches and a picnic table – all shaded by small pergolas and all accessible to people with disabilities. A small olive vine grows near the lookout. The magnificent landscape of the Rabin park and Jerusalem mountains surrounds the site. Underneath runs the Ilan stream and beyond it are the ridges, among them Hamasrek, Hurvat Elkat, Mishlatim, and the towns of Shoresh, Beit Meir and Shoava, as well as the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road.

Directions: Enter Neve Ilan through the yellow gate (if the gate is closed don't worry – many cars go in and out of the town), pass near the old Neve Ilan site and arrive at a roundabout. On your right, you'll see the new houses of Neve Ilan. Turn left and after 100 meters, on the next roundabout, turn right. Near the Kedma function hall, you'll discover the KKL-JNF road mark, leading your to the Colleges forest and Hurvat Matzad (marked in black). The road leads outside of the Neve Ilan fence and after 400 meters arrives at a plaza at the foot of a hill with a big rock monument commemorating the Jewish victims of the holocaust in Belgium. Keep driving on the road marked in green, and you'll reach the lookout. The road is accessible to vehicles.

The Luki scenic lookout. Photograph: Yaakov Shkolnik