HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Ramat HaNadiv (, ''Heights of the Benefactor''), is a nature park and garden in northern
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 ...
, covering at the southern end of
Mount Carmel Mount Carmel (; ), also known in Arabic as Mount Mar Elias (; ), is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. The range is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. A number of towns are situat ...
between
Zikhron Ya'akov Zikhron Ya'akov () often shortened to just Zikhron, is a local council (Israel), town in northern Israel, south of the city of Haifa, and part of the Haifa District. It is located at the southern end of the Mount Carmel, Carmel mountain range over ...
to the north and
Binyamina Binyamina-Giv'at Ada () is a town in the Haifa District in northern Israel. It is the result of the 2003 merger between the two local councils of Binyamina and Giv'at Ada. In 2019 its population was 17,371. Before the merger, the population of ...
to the south. The
Jewish National Fund The Jewish National Fund (JNF; , ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael''; previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') is a non-profit organizationProfessor Alon Tal, The Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, The Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion ...
planted pine and cypress groves in most of the area.


History

In 1882, during the late Ottoman era, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) found at ''Umm el Alak'' only "ruined walls". The name meant "producing leeches". A population list from about 1887 showed that ''Umm el Alaq'' had about 85 residents, all Muslim. Umm el-'Aleq was a small Arab village where in the 19th century a farmstead (''Beit Khouri'') was constructed by the Christian Arab family of el-Khouri from
Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...
. French Baron
Edmond de Rothschild Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (; 19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French member of the Rothschild banking family. A strong supporter of Jewish settlement in Palestine, his large donations lent significant support to ...
purchased the land from the el-Khouri family. The Jews coming during the
Third Aliyah The Third Aliyah () refers to the third wave, or aliyah, of modern Jewish immigration to Palestine (region), Palestine from Europe. This wave lasted from 1919, just after the end of World War I, until 1923, at the start of an economic crisis in P ...
in 1919 changed the name of the region to "Ummlaleq" ("the miserable one"); their diaries recorded conflicts with the evicted Arabs as well as malarial mosquitoes proving to be an impediment to settlement within the region. In the
1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...
, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Umm al-Alaq'' had a population of 14 Jews.


Archaeology

Yizhar Hirschfeld has carried out archaeological digs in Ramat Hanadiv over a period of 14 years. The excavations at Horvat ‘Aqav and Horvat Eleq, has unearthed remains from three periods: a small
Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...
n shrine, a
Herodian Herodian or Herodianus () of Syria, sometimes referred to as "Herodian of Antioch" (c. 170 – c. 240), was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful history in Greek titled ''History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus'' (τῆς με ...
estate manor and a
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
period villa.Dave Winter (1999) ''Israel handbook: with the Palestinian Authority areas'' Footprint Travel Guides, p 552 It has been hypothesized that there was a spread of malarial mosquitoes in Ramat Hanadiv during the late Byzantine period. One of the findings at Ramat HaNadiv was a 6,000 square meter palace abandoned during the Great Rebellion against the Romans in 66 CE. The palace contained close to 100 rooms. Gold jewels, Italian marble and imported clay pottery attest to the wealth of the owner, who is believed to have been Jewish.


Horvat 'Eleq

The excavations at Horvat 'Eleq uncovered a Jewish
Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
-period settlement, a huge Herodian fortified complex, and a Roman-period bathhouse, in addition to a water system and the 19th-century Umm el-'Aleq.


Horvat 'Aqav

The excavations of the late 1st century BCE Herodian manor complex at Horvat 'Aqav revealed the base of a three storied tower, stables, two wine presses and an olive press. The Herodian manor also had a bath house, fed by a hypocaust system, with caldarium and swimming pool. Crosses found on roof tiles and bowls at the Horvat 'Aqav excavation from the Byzantine era may indicate that the later occupants of the site were
Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...
.


Ein Tzur

The spring and aqueduct at Ein Tzur has been linked to ''Mont Sina'', written about by an anonymous
Pilgrim of Bordeaux ''Itinerarium Burdigalense'' ("Bordeaux Itinerary"), also known as ''Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum'' ("Jerusalem Itinerary"), is the oldest known Christian ''itinerarium''. It was written by the "Pilgrim of Bordeaux", an anonymous pilgrim from t ...
(333) located from
Caesarea Maritima Caesarea () also Caesarea Maritima, Caesarea Palaestinae or Caesarea Stratonis, was an ancient and medieval port city on the coast of the eastern Mediterranean, and later a small fishing village. It was the capital of Judaea (Roman province), ...
. Where a spring on the mountain is visited by women seeking to become pregnant by bathing in its waters. This is due to a hoard of more than 2,000 coins being discovered in the pool of Ein Tzur, indicating that it was a place of pilgrimage from the 3rd to 7th century.Ramat Hanadiv
Horvat 'Eleq (Khirbet Umm el-'Aleq)


Kebara Cavern

The Kebara cavern, with 10 prehistoric layers of occupation, covering from middle
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 ...
to late
Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...
, is also within the Ramat Hanadiv region.


Green technology

In 1994, a Green Waste recycling project was launched in Ramat Hanadiv to serve as an example for gardening contractors, regional councils and municipalities. Forestry and gardening waste – branches, grass, leaves, etc. – are collected and processed into compost that is then reused for gardening. A wastewater purification facility was installed at Ramat Hanadiv in 1998. This is a Bio-Disc type facility used for the purification of the wastewater generated by the office and public lavatories at the Gardens. In March 2008, Ramat Hanadiv's Visitors Pavilion became the first building in Israel to be granted standard certification for sustainable construction. The pavilion was designed by the architectural firm of Ada Karmi Melamede. Indoor climate control is provided by a geothermal
heat pump A heat pump is a device that uses electricity to transfer heat from a colder place to a warmer place. Specifically, the heat pump transfers thermal energy using a heat pump and refrigeration cycle, cooling the cool space and warming the warm s ...
system consisting of an electrically powered compressor and exchanger device connected to a series of small diameter pipes buried in the earth. Heat energy can either be captured from inside the building and returned to the earth or reversed to capture heat energy from the earth and channeled into the building. It looks like a green mound covered with soil and vegetation. Inside is an assembly hall where visitors can watch a film about Ramat Hanadiv, an exhibition gallery, a lecture hall and an educational center.


References


Bibliography

* * * * *


External links

*
Welcome To Kh. Umm al-'Alaq
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 8
IAAWikimedia commons
{{coord, 32, 32, 53, N, 34, 56, 39, E, type:landmark_region:IL_dim:3000, display=title * Archaeological sites in Israel Parks in Israel Heritage listed sites in Israel Gardens in Israel Tourist attractions in Haifa District