Lake Ram ( and Birkat el-Ram. ) is a crater lake ( maar) in the northeastern Golan Heights near the village of Mas'ade and Mount Hermon. Maar Israel

History

Josephus referred to it as Lake Phiala. The sources of the lake are rain water and an underground spring. The lake has no outlet. It is known in Hebrew as "Brekhat Ram" (also written Berekhat Ram), meaning high pool.The Vilnay Guide to Israel, Volume 2, Beit-Or-Vilnay, 1999, p.298. It is also called Birket Ram, using the Arabic word for pond. The area is inhabited by the

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

community. Many geologists believe that the lake formed inside the crater of an extinct volcano.

Archaeology

During excavations evidence was discovered of

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

human and hominid activity. Most notably, excavation led to the discovery of the Venus of Berekhat Ram, a pebble allegedly worked by

Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' ( ) is an extinction, extinct species of Homo, archaic human from the Pleistocene, spanning nearly 2 million years. It is the first human species to evolve a humanlike body plan and human gait, gait, to early expansions of h ...

. The artefact has been claimed to be the oldest known example of representational art in the world. The pebble was found in a context datable to at least 230,000 years before present time, thus to the early Middle Palaeolithic. The claim that it is the earliest manifestation of human art is contested on multiple grounds (see article). The site has been excavated for evidence of human activity during its history. Research on lacustrine sediments at the site concluded that the area has been heavily settled four times over history, first during the early Bronze Age, secondly during the Hellenistic and Roman–Byzantine periods, thirdly during the period of medieval Crusader rule, and finally in modern times. Between these periods the area became overgrown as local woodland regenerated, evidencing phases of low human occupation.

Legends

According to The

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

, Sanhedrin 108a, Brekhat Ram is one of three underground springs, along with Hamat Gader in the southeastern Golan Heights and Hamat Tiberias, that opened up in the

Flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

of Noah and did not close up again after the flood. In a local Druze legend the lake is the "eye" of the "

sheikh Sheikh ( , , , , ''shuyūkh'' ) is an honorific title in the Arabic language, literally meaning "elder (administrative title), elder". It commonly designates a tribal chief or a Muslim ulama, scholar. Though this title generally refers to me ...

's wife", the name for a hill nearby. Mount Hermon (in Arabic ''Jabal al-Shaykh'', "Mountain of the Sheikh"), referred to as the sheikh himself, is supposed to have been separated from the "wife", whereupon her eye filled with tears.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Golan Heights Landforms of the Golan Heights Maars Ram Extinct volcanoes Volcanoes of the Golan Heights Pleistocene volcanoes