Rosh HaNikra or Hanikra (; ) is a
geologic formation
A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...
on the border between Israel and Lebanon, located on the coast of 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 ...
, in the
Western Galilee
Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ).
''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...
. It is a white
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...
cliff face which opens up into spectacular
grotto
A grotto or grot is a natural or artificial cave or covered recess.
Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high tide.
Sometimes, artificial grottoes are used as garden fea ...
s.
The Rosh HaNikra grottoes are cavernous tunnels formed by sea action on the soft chalk rock. The total length of the tunnels is about 200 meters. They branch off in various directions, with some interconnecting segments. A tunnel was built by the British for the Haifa-Beirut railroad line, and in 1968 a second one was dug, both connecting the grottoes with each other and allowing access (currently: only exit) along the former route of the British railroad. For many years, though, the only access to the grottoes was from the sea, and the native swimmers and divers were the only ones capable of visiting. The 400-meter-long tunnel dug in 1968 between the grottoes and slightly above sea level allowed easier access, and soon after, a
cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems:
* Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable
** Aerial tramway
** Chairlift
** Gondola lift
*** ...
was built to take visitors down from the top of the cliff to the tunnels. With a 60-degree gradient, this cable car is advertised as the steepest in the world.
A
kibbutz
A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...
, also named
Rosh HaNikra, is located nearby. The Israeli city
Nahariya
Nahariya () is the northernmost coastal city in Israel. As of , the city had a population of .
The city was founded in 1935 by Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.
Etymology
Nahariya takes its name from the stream of Ga'aton River, Ga'aton (riv ...
is located about 10 km (6 miles) south of Rosh HaNikra.
Recognition of the potential offered by the unusual Rosh Hanikra grottoes led to the development of this beautiful site as a tourist attraction for Northern Israel. The project was spearheaded by Bawer Mizna as Mayor of one of the kibbutzim as well as an Arab town. He and his wife, Miriam, were among the original settlers of the area and of the nearby kibbutz, Matzuvah.
History
Hebrew Bible to Roman period
The
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile. It tells of the ...
mentions "Misraphot Mayim" as a place south of Rosh HaNikra that was the border of the
Israelite
Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age.
Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...
tribes of the time. In the
First Book of the Maccabees, the "
Ladder of Tyre
Ladder of Tyre (Aramaic language, Aramaic: ''Sûlama de Ṣôr''), (), also known as the Ladder of the Tyrians and the Promontory of Tyre, is a geographical feature mentioned in Greek and Hebrew sources, distinguished by a littoral zone, littoral ...
" is referred to as the northern border of the territory under the governorship of
Simon Maccabaeus
Simon Thassi ( ''Šīməʿōn haTassī''; died 135) was the second son of Mattathias and thus a member of the Hasmonean family.
Names
The name "Thassi" has a connotation of "the Wise", a title which can also mean "the Director", "the Guide" ...
in 144 BCE (
1 Maccabees
1 Maccabees, also known as the First Book of Maccabees, First Maccabees, and abbreviated as 1 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which details the history of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire as well as the founding and earliest hi ...
).
Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...
Flavius also describes Rosh Hanikra as the northern border of the city of
Acre, Israel
Acre ( ), known in Hebrew as Akko (, ) and in Arabic as Akka (, ), is a List of cities in Israel, city in the coastal plain region of the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel.
The city occupies a strategic location, sitting ...
. (
The Jewish War
''The Jewish War'' is a work of Jewish history written by Josephus, a first-century Roman-Jewish historian. It has been described by the biblical historian Steve Mason as "perhaps the most influential non-biblical text of Western history".
...
2, 10, 2). The archaeological
tell is today situated within the
kibbutz
A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...
.
In the
First Book of Maccabees
1 Maccabees, also known as the First Book of Maccabees, First Maccabees, and abbreviated as 1 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which details the history of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire as well as the founding and earliest his ...
(), a cape in this region is referred to as the "Ladder of Tyre" (; ); the author could have meant either the cliffs at Rosh HaNikra, or one of two other capes jutting out into the sea slightly north or south of them. The site was later named an-Nawakir ("The Grottoes") by the Arabs.
WWII and after: railway and conflicts
Rosh HaNikra has served as a passage point for trade caravans and armies between Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Egypt, and Africa. In 1942, during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, after the
Allied capture of Vichy-ruled Lebanon, the Haifa-Acre extension of the
Hijaz Railway was further expanded into Lebanon for military purposes, which also entailed quarrying the tunnels at Ras el-Nakurah.
This allowed for a railway connection between Haifa and the cities of
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
to the south and Beirut to the north, the latter already being connected to
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
and
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
, or to
Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
and then via the Hijaz line to
Amman
Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...
.
[ It was the ]South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
n contingent who blasted the tunnels.
The railway bridge at Rosh HaNikra was spared by the Haganah
Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...
during the 1946 Night of the Bridges
The Night of the Bridges (formally Operation Markolet) was a Haganah venture on the night of 16 to 17 June 1946 in the British Mandate of Palestine, as part of the Jewish insurgency in Palestine (1944–47). Its aim was to destroy eleven brid ...
operation but, following a late-1947 British announcement that it would withdraw from Palestine months ahead of schedule, the bridge was destroyed by the 21st Battalion under the Palmach
The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Phalanges/Companies") was the elite combined strike forces and sayeret unit of the Haganah, the paramilitary organization of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of th ...
in late February 1948 to hinder Lebanese arms shipments to Arab forces opposing the UN Partition Plan. As repairs were prohibitively expensive, the tunnels were later completely sealed. The Lebanese railways
Rail transport in Lebanon began in the 1890s as French projects under the Ottoman Empire but largely ceased in the 1970s owing to the country's civil war. The last remaining routes ended for economic reasons in the 1990s. At its peak Lebanon ha ...
have been largely dismantled while the Coastal Railway
The Coastal railway line () is a Main line (railway), mainline railway in Israel, which begins just south of the Lebanon-Israel border on the Mediterranean coast, near the town of Nahariya in Northern Israel and stretches almost the entire Mediter ...
in Israel currently ends near Nahariya
Nahariya () is the northernmost coastal city in Israel. As of , the city had a population of .
The city was founded in 1935 by Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.
Etymology
Nahariya takes its name from the stream of Ga'aton River, Ga'aton (riv ...
, several kilometers to the south.
Rosh Hanikra was the location where Israeli and Lebanese officials negotiated and concluded an armistice agreement in 1949 which ended the Lebanese-Israeli component of the 1948 War of Israeli Independence. A border passage across the Blue Line into Lebanon at the site is sometimes used by UNIFIL
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (; ), or UNIFIL (; ) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission established on 19 March 1978 by United Nations Security Council Resolutions 425 and 426, and several further resolutions in 2006 to con ...
personnel.
Nature reserves and national park
The area around Rosh HaNikra includes a number of nature reserves:
* The Rosh HaNikra islands - 311 dunam
A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...
s declared in 1965
* The Rosh HaNikra reserve - 500 dunams declared in 1969, and an additional 765 dunams in 1996.
* Rosh HaNikra beach - 230 dunams, declared in 2003
The Rosh HaNikra national park also has jurisdiction of 220 dunams in the area.
* Rosh HaNikra grottoes out to sea.jpg
Cable car
The Rosh HaNikra cable car is a cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems:
* Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable
** Aerial tramway
** Chairlift
** Gondola lift
*** ...
serving tourists wishing to visit the grottoes. The cable car is situated very close to the Lebanese border. The site is popular with tourists, and is one of the facilities available for tourists in Kibbutz
A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...
Rosh HaNikra. The cable car was manufactured by Austrian manufacturer Doppelmayr Garaventa Group
Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group is an international manufacturer of Aerial lift, ropeways and people movers for ski areas, Public transport, urban transport, amusement parks, and material handling systems. As of 2023, the group had produced over 15,400 ...
, and claims to be the steepest cable car in the world, ascending at a gradient of 60 degrees. Although its lower base station is located on the sea, the cable car is occasionally affected by stormy weather. The Israeli Sign Language
Israeli Sign Language (Hebrew: שפת הסימנים הישראלית), also known as Shassi or ISL, is the most commonly used sign language by the Deaf community of Israel. Some other sign languages are also used in Israel, among them Al-Sayyi ...
sign for Rosh HaNikra derives from this cable car, as it emulates its motion.
See also
*Geography of Israel
The geography of Israel is very diverse, with desert conditions in the south, and snow-capped mountains in the north. Israel is located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea in West Asia. It is bounded to the north by Lebanon, the northe ...
*Tourism in Israel
Tourism in Israel is a major economic sector and a significant source of national income. Israel offers a plethora of historical and religious sites, beach resorts, natural sites, archaeological tourism, heritage tourism, adventure tourism, and ...
* Hiking in Israel
References
Gallery
Image:Rosh HaNikra.jpg
Image:Rosh HaNikra Grottoes 1.jpg
Image:Rosh HaNikra Grottoes 2.jpg
Image:Rosh HaNikra Grottoes 3.jpg
Image:Rosh HaNikra grottoes.jpg
Image:PICT0080.JPG
File:Inside the Rosh Hanikra cave05.jpg
External links
Rosh HaNikra Official Site- Hebrew
Rosh HaNikra Official Site- English
* .
* .
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosh Hanikra Grottoes
Caves of Israel
National parks of Israel
Nature reserves in Israel
Grottoes
Sea caves
Protected areas of Northern District (Israel)
Landforms of Northern District (Israel)
Rosh HaNikra cable car