The Harod Valley () is a valley in the Northern District of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. It is the eastern part of the

Jezreel Valley The Jezreel Valley (from the ), or Marj Ibn Amir (), also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. It is bordered to the north by the highlands o ...

, a transitional zone that extends to the Beit She'an Valley. From the south it locked by

Mount Gilboa Mount Gilboa (; ''Jabal Jalbūʿ'' or ''Jabal Fuqqāʿa''), sometimes referred to as the Mountains of Gilboa, is the name for a mountain range in the West Bank. It overlooks the Harod Valley (the eastern part of the larger Jezreel Valley) to ...

, and by the Issachar Plateau from the north. It is named after the "Spring of Harod" ( Ma'ayan Harod in

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew (, or ), also known as Israeli Hebrew or simply Hebrew, is the Standard language, standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It is the only surviving Canaanite language, as well as one of the List of languages by first w ...

), called in Arabic Ein Jalut, at the edge of the valley.

Etymology

For origin and meaning of historical and modern Israeli name of the name-giving spring, see Ma'ayan Harod: Names and identification.

Hydrology, geography and geology

The Harod Valley is naturally separated from the western part of the Jezreel Valley by a watershed. While the Jezreel Valley is drained via the

Kishon River The Kishon River (, ; , – ''the intermittent river''; alternative Arabic, ) is a river in Israel that flows into the Mediterranean Sea near the city of Haifa. Course The Kishon River is a perennial stream in Israel. Its furthest source is t ...

to the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

, the Harod Valley is drained through the Harod Stream ("Nahal Harod" in Hebrew, "Wadi Jalud" in Arabic), which flows from Givat HaMoreh via Beit She'an Valley into the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

.Efraim Orni, Elisha Efrat, ''Geography of Israel'', 1971
transcript
at encyclopedia.com) Harod Spring is the largest of the springs emerging on the northern slopes of

. The source of the spring as well as other springs in the Beit She'an Valley to the east, comes from fresh rainwater that percolate into the

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

hills of

Samaria Samaria (), the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Shomron (), is used as a historical and Hebrew Bible, biblical name for the central region of the Land of Israel. It is bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The region is ...

and collect in an underground water reservoir beneath the areas of the Palestinian cities of

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

and

Jenin Jenin ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and is the capital of the Jenin Governorate. It is a hub for the surrounding towns. Jenin came under Israeli occupied territories, Israeli occupation in 1967, and was put under the administra ...

. The water emerges from the hills as they incline north towards the valleys. At this valley, the waters emerge from a natural cave known as " Gideon's Cave". The valley covers about 40 km² and is intensely cultivated."The Harod Valley Case Study"
/ref> It is a corridor 18 km long and max. 5 km wide. The exact border between the Harod Valley and the Beit She'an Valley depends on the conventions. For example, according to soil and precipitation parameters, the border is the Sde Nahum -

Beit Alfa Beit Alfa (; also Beit Alpha, Bet Alpha and Bet Alfa) is a kibbutz in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel, founded in 1922 by immigrants from Poland. Located at the base of the Gilboa (ridge), Gilboa ridge, it falls under ...

line, while according to the climate, the border is marked by Kfar Yehezkel. The climate of the valley transitions from the

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

of the western part of the Jezreel Valley to the arid dry- steppe climate of the Jordan Valley.Karen Covello-Paran
"The Jezreel Valley during the Intermediate Bronze Age: Social and Cultural Landscapes"
Ph.D., 2015 There is a fault line between Mount Gilboa and the floor of the valley, with many spring along the line. Until the mid-20th century the valley was swamped, similarly to the Jordan Valley. Now the swamps are drained.

References

Bibliography

*{{cite book , last1=Julie Baretz , title=The Bible on Location: Off the Beaten Path in Ancient and Modern Israel , publisher=

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press (UNP) was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the University of Ne ...

Jewish Publication Society The Jewish Publication Society (JPS), originally known as the Jewish Publication Society of America, is the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English. Founded in Philadelphia in 1888, by Reform Rabbi Joseph Krauskop ...

, isbn=978-0-8276-1189-4 , pages=37–51 , chapter=Gideon at En Harod Judges 6; 7; 8:22–28 (additional reading: 8:1–21), date=June 2015 Valleys of Israel Geography of Northern District (Israel) Jezreel Valley

Etymology

Hydrology, geography and geology

See also

References

Bibliography