Google Street View to map Israel Trail

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Google Street View will photograph the length of the Israel Trail, a hiking route that runs from the nation’s northern to southern ends.

A feature of Google Maps that merges photographs to provide a street-level view of locations worldwide, Google Street View will enlist hikers from the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, or SPNI, to map the 660-mile trail, the Israeli business publication Globes reported.

Inaugurated 20 years ago by SPNI, the trail runs from Kibbutz Dan, near the uppermost reaches of Israel’s border with Lebanon, to Eilat on its southern tip.

The trail will be the longest one photographed for Google Maps and the first that spans a whole country. Google is sending two cameras to Israel for the mission.

“Exposing the Israel National Trail through Street View will encourage tourists from Israel and abroad to experience with their feet and their senses the various cultures and landscapes of Israel, to fall in love with them and to take action to preserve them,” SPNI CEO Moshe Pakman said, according to Globes.