The Judaean Mountains, or Judaean Hills (, or ,) are a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

and

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 ...

where

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

and several other biblical sites are located. The mountains reach a height of . The Judean Mountains can be divided into a number of sub-regions, including the

Mount Hebron The Hebron Hills, also known as Mount Hebron (, ), are a mountain ridge, geographic region, and geologic formation, constituting the southern part of the Judean Mountains. The Hebron Hills are located in the southern West Bank. During the Iro ...

ridge, the Jerusalem ridge and the Judean slopes. The Judaean Mountains formed the heartland of the

Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelites, Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea, the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem. It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries ...

(930–586 BCE), where the earliest Jewish settlements emerged, and from which Jews are originally descended.

Geography

The Judaean Mountains are part of a more extended range that runs in a north-south direction. The ridge consists of the

Samarian Hills Samaria (), the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Shomron (), is used as a historical and 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 known to the ...

in its northern part, and of the Judaean Mountains in its southern part, the two segments meeting at the latitude of

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

. The westward descent from the hard limestone country of the Judaean mountains towards the

coastal plain A coastal plain (also coastal plains, coastal lowland, coastal lowlands) is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and an upland area. Formation Coastal plains can f ...

is by way of a longitudinal trough of fosse cut through chalk, followed by the low, rolling soft limestone hills of the

Shephelah The Shephelah () or Shfela (), or the Judaean Foothills (), is a transitional region of soft-sloping rolling hills in south-central Israel stretching over between the Judaean Mountains and the Coastal Plain. The different use of the term "Jud ...

, while eastwards the landscape falls steeply towards the

Jordan Rift Valley The Jordan Rift Valley, also Jordan Valley ( ''Bīqʿāt haYardēn'', Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr), is an elongated endorheic basin located in modern-day Israel, Jordan and the West Bank, Palestine. This geographic region includes the entire length o ...

. The southern end of the mountain range is at

Beersheba Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most p ...

Palestine: Land
Encyclopaedia Britannica in the northern part of the

Negev The Negev ( ; ) or Naqab (), is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort town, resort city ...

, where the mountains slope down into the Beersheba- Arad valley. The average height of the Judaean Mountains is of , and they encompass the cities of Ramallah,

and

. The northern section of the Judaean mountains is referred to as Jerusalem Hills, and the southern one as

Hebron Hills The Hebron Hills, also known as Mount Hebron (, ), are a mountain ridge, geographic region, and geologic formation, constituting the southern part of the Judaean Mountains, Judean Mountains. The Hebron Hills are located in the southern West Ban ...

. The Judaean Mountains were heavily forested in antiquity. The range is mostly composed of terra rossa soils over hard

limestones Limestone is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Limestone forms when these ...

Geology and palaeontology

The Judaean Mountains are the surface expression of a series of

monoclinic In crystallography, the monoclinic crystal system is one of the seven crystal systems. A crystal system is described by three Vector (geometric), vectors. In the monoclinic system, the crystal is described by vectors of unequal lengths, as in t ...

folds which trend north-northwest through Israel. The folding is the central expression of the

Syrian Arc The Syrian Arc is a series of fold structures that extend from Syria, through Lebanon and Israel/Palestine into northern Sinai and on into Egypt's Eastern and Western deserts. The folds started forming during the Late Cretaceous epoch as a res ...

belt of

anticlinal Anticlinal may refer to: *Anticline, in structural geology, an anticline is a fold that is convex up and has its oldest beds at its core *Anticlinal, in stereochemistry, a torsion angle between 90° to 150°, and –90° to –150°; see Alkane_st ...

folding that began in the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

Period in northeast Africa and southwest Asia. The Syrian Arc extends east-northeast across the Sinai, turns north-northeast through Israel and continues the east-northeast trend into Syria. The Israeli segment parallels the

Dead Sea Transform The Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault system, also sometimes referred to as the Dead Sea Rift, is a series of Fault (geology), faults that run for about 1,000 km from the Marash triple junction (a junction with the East Anatolian Fault in south ...

which lies just to the east. The uplift events that created the mountain occurred in two phases one in the

Late Eocene The Priabonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS's geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age or the upper stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Eocene epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), Series. It spans ...

Early Oligocene The Rupelian is, in the geologic timescale, the older of two age (geology), ages or the lower of two stage (stratigraphy), stages of the Oligocene epoch (geology), Epoch/series (stratigraphy), Series. It spans the time between . It is preceded b ...

and second in the

Early Miocene The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages: the Aquitanian age, Aquitanian and Burdigalian stages. The sub-epoch lasted from 23.03 ± 0.05 annum, Ma to ...

. In

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

times, animals no longer found elsewhere in the

Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...

region were found here, including

elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...

rhinoceroses A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

giraffe The giraffe is a large Fauna of Africa, African even-toed ungulate, hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa.'' It is the Largest mammals#Even-toed Ungulates (Artiodactyla), tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on ...

s and

wild Asian water buffalo The wild water buffalo (''Bubalus arnee''), also called Asian buffalo, Asiatic buffalo and wild buffalo, is a large bovine native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It has been listed as ''Endangered'' in the IUCN Red List since 19 ...

. The range has

karst topography Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

including a

stalactite A stalactite (, ; , ) is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble and that can be deposited as a colloid, or is in suspension (chemistry ...

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

in Nahal Sorek National Park between

and

Beit Shemesh Beit Shemesh () is a city council (Israel), city located approximately west of Jerusalem in Israel's Jerusalem District. A center of Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodoxy, Beit Shemesh has a population of 170,683 as of 2024. The city is named afte ...

and the area surrounding

Ofra Ofra () is an Israeli settlement located in the northern Israeli occupied territories, Israeli-occupied West Bank. Located on the main road between Jerusalem and Nablus (Route 60), it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Binyamin Regional Counc ...

, where fossils of prehistoric flora and fauna were found.

In the Hebrew Bible

According to the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Tribe of Judah According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe of Judah (, ''Shevet Yehudah'') was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel, named after Judah (son of Jacob), Judah, the son of Jacob. Judah was one of the tribes to take its place in Canaan, occupying it ...

and the heartland of the former

Transportation

The main freeway between

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

and

, which further extends to the Jordan Valley as a regular road. Highway 1, passes through the Judaean Mountains, between

and

. An

Israel Railways Israel Railways Ltd. (, ''Rakevet Yisra'el'') is the state-owned principal railway company responsible for all inter-city, commuter, and freight rail transport in Israel. Israel Railways network consists of of track. All its lines are standar ...

line, Jaffa-Jerusalem railway, runs from Beit Shemesh along the

Brook of Sorek Naḥal Sorek (; ), also Soreq, is one of the largest, most important drainage basins in the Judean Hills. It is mentioned in the Book of Judges 16:4 of the Bible as the border between the ancient Philistines and the Tribe of Dan of the ancient ...

and Valley of Rephaim to the

Jerusalem Malha Train Station Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Juda ...

. The line has since been largely replaced by the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem railway, which utilizes tunnels and bridges through the Judaean Mountains, runs up to 160 km/h (99 mph) between

Ben Gurion Airport Ben Gurion International Airport , commonly known by the Hebrew language, Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on outskirts north of the city of Lod and directly south of the city of Or Yehuda, i ...

and Jerusalem-Yitzhak Navon railway station.

Winemaking

The Judaean Mountains have been associated with

winemaking Winemaking, wine-making, or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its Ethanol fermentation, fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over ...

for thousands of years, as evidenced by the abundance of ancient winepresses, references to

viticulture Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine ...

in ancient texts like the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Arad ostraca, written by Judahite soldiers in the late 7th century BCE. Nevertheless, with the

Muslim conquest of the Levant The Muslim conquest of the Levant (; ), or Arab conquest of Syria, was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate. A part of the wider Arab–Byzantine wars, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and develope ...

in the 7th century, and particularly during the later

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

rule in the Middle Ages, a significant decline in winemaking activities occurred, ultimately leading to a complete prohibition of winemaking. In the 1980s, the Judaean Mountains witnessed a notable resurgence in winemaking, driven by Israeli entrepreneurs. Today, the area is renowned for its

boutique A () is a retail shop that deals in high end fashionable clothing or accessories. The word is French for "shop", which derives ultimately from the Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in anc ...

wineries A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the cultivation and production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feat ...

. This region's combination of Mediterranean microclimates, terra rossa clay soil, and high-altitude vineyards has also propelled it into the spotlight as a burgeoning center for quality wine production. In recent decades, wines originating from this area have garnered international recognition. In August 2020, the Judean Hills region in Israel received the country's first official wine appellation.

Gallery

File:Maale Adumim 07 03-04-17 13-29.jpg, The Judaean Mountains between

and

Ma'ale Adumim Ma'ale Adumim (; ) is an urban Israeli settlement organized as a city council in the West Bank, seven kilometers () east of Jerusalem. Ma'ale Adumim achieved city status in 1991. In 2015, its population was . It is located along Highway 1, whi ...

File:Judean.mont.deadsea.JPG, The Judean Hills viewed from the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...

File:Land of Israel.jpg, View from hilltop overlooking ''Wadi es-Ṣur'', an extension of the

Elah Valley The Valley of Elah, Ella Valley ("Valley of the terebinth"; from the ), or Wadi es-Sunt (), is a long, shallow valley in the Shephelah area of Israel. It is best-known from the Hebrew Bible incident where David defeated Goliath (1 Samuel 17:2 an ...

in Israel File:Panorama from beth meir 5.jpg, View from

Beit Meir Beit Meir () is a religious moshav in central Israel. Located around nine miles from Jerusalem, just off the Highway 1, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council Mateh Yehuda Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Mateh Ye ...

in the Judaean Mountains File:Judaean mountains.jpg, Idyllic scene in the Judean Mountains, overlooking the village of Khirbet ed-Deir which sits along the Green Line File:Ancient ruin near Neve Michael.jpg, The ruined structure of an ancient house, near

Neve Michael Neve Michael () also known as Roglit, is a moshav in central Israel. Located in the Adullam region and built upon an eminence in the far south-east end of the Elah Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In it ...

File:SatafNov062022 04.jpg, Remains of

Sataf Sataf (Arabic: صطاف, Hebrew: סטף) was a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It was located 10 km west of Jerusalem, with Sorek Valley (Arabic: Wadi as-Sarar) bordering to th ...

village

References

External links

*
Pictures

Symbolism and Landscape: The Etzion Bloc in the Judaean Mountains

Yossi Katz Yossi Katz (; born 19 August 1949) is an Israeli former politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party and One Israel between 1992 and 2003. Biography Born in Haifa, Katz studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem ...

and John C. Lehr {{Authority control Mountain ranges of Israel Hebrew Bible mountains Mountains of the West Bank Wine regions of Israel