Mount Arbel
Mount Arbel | |
---|---|
Highest point | |
Elevation | 181 m (594 ft)[1] |
Prominence | 380 m (1,250 ft) |
Listing | World Heritage Sites in Israel |
Coordinates | 32°49′28″N 35°30′00″E / 32.82455°N 35.49994°E[1] |
Geography | |
Country | Israel |
Mount Arbel (
There are four villages on the mountain: Kfar Zeitim, Arbel, Kfar Hittim, and Mitzpa. The peak, at 181 metres above sea level (380 metres above the surrounding area), dominates the surroundings (much of the area is below sea level), and from the lookout atop the mountain, almost all of the Galilee is visible including Safed, as well as Tiberias and most of the Sea of Galilee, and the slopes of the Golan Heights on the other side of the Sea.
History
Dug into the mountain are a number of documented Jewish cliff dwellings, expanded from natural caves, dating back to the Second Temple period. The inhabitants built ritual baths and water cisterns. At different times, the caves were fortified and connected by an internal staircase. Some Jews also lived in houses built on top of the mountain.[2][3]
Hellenistic period
In 161 BCE "Arbela" was the site of a battle between the supporters of the
Roman period
In 38 BCE, we are told by Josephus, partisans of Antigonus fighting against Herod who was conquering the land with Roman support, were either killed in their cave hideouts or committed suicide.[4][6][7]
It is also Josephus who, writing about himself in the third person, tells us how he fortified the caves and used them as storage base at the beginning of the First Jewish–Roman War in the year 66 CE, when he was in charge of the defense of Galilee:
- "Moreover, he [Josephus] built walls about the caves near the lake of Gennesar, which places lay in the lower Galilee".[8][6]
Late Roman and Byzantine period: the Arbel synagogue
Nearby are the ruins of an ancient
Ottoman period
The cave system was finally refortified into a
Nature reserve and national park
The area was declared a nature reserve in 1967, covering 1400 dunams.[9] The national park (8509 dunams) includes most of Nahal Arbel, that begins near Eilabun and empties into the Sea of Galilee near Migdal. The reserve covers the immediate area around the cliff.[10]
On the south side of the cliff, there is a gradual prolonged climb through agricultural and pasture land and from the peak there is a steep 400 meters drop. From here there are metal handholds driven into the rock to aid those who want to make the climb down to the valley below. Below that are a series of switchbacks that eventually lead to the Bedouin village of Hamaam.
Mount Arbel, with its 110-metre vertical drop, is the only known mountain in Israel to serve as a
References
- ^ a b "Topographic map of Mount Arbel". opentopomap.org. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
- ^ "Caves of Arbela: The ultimate hiding place". The Times of Israel. 2013. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
- ^ a b Arbel National Park and Nature Reserve, at the website of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, accessed 17 July 2019
- ^ )
- Josephus Flavius. "Book XII, 11, 1". Antiquities of the Jews.
Demetrius ... sent Bacchides again with an army into Judea. Who ... came into Judea; and pitched his camp at Arbela, a city of Galilee: and having besieged and taken those that were there in caves; (for many of the people had fled into such places;) he removed, and made all the haste he could to Jerusalem.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-923666-4. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
- Josephus Flavius. "Book XIV, 4-5". Antiquities of the Jews.
He also went thence, and resolved to destroy those robbers that dwelt in the caves, and did much mischief in the countrey. ... They were very near to a village called Arbela. And on the fortieth day after he came himself, with his whole army. (etc.)
- ^ Josephus Flavius. "The Wars of the Jews, Book II, ch. 20, paragraph 6". Retrieved 5 February 2016.
- ^ "List of National Parks and Nature Reserves" (PDF) (in Hebrew). Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-07. Retrieved 2010-10-06.
- ^ Nature and Parks Authority brochure (PDF) (in Hebrew), archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-27, retrieved 2010-10-06
- ^ "Mount Arbel National Park". israel trip planner. Retrieved 14 December 2015.