En Gedi
| En Gedi | |||
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| Basic data | |||
| hebrew : | עין גדי | ||
| State : |
 Israel
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| District : | south | ||
| Founded : | 1953 | ||
| Coordinates : | 31 ° 27 ' N , 35 ° 23' E | ||
| Height : | 304 m below sea level | ||
| Residents : | 603 (as of: 2018) | ||
| Community code : | 2042 | ||
| Time zone : | UTC + 2 | ||
| Website : | |||
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En Gedi or Ein Gedi ( Hebrew עֵין גֶּדִי ejn gedí , German for “spring of the kid” or “spring of the kid”) is an oasis in the Judean desert . It is located on Israel's west bank of the Dead Sea, south of the border with the West Bank . The oasis has been inhabited for thousands of years. Today there is a national park and a kibbutz there .
history
The oasis of En Gedi was already in the 4th millennium BC. Settled; Remains of a temple still exist from this time .
In the Bible the name of this city and the surrounding wilderness of the tribal area of Judah is mentioned in Joshua 15 EU , 1 Samuel 24 EU and in the Song of Songs 1.14 EU . This city is usually identified with Tel Goren, which is near the present-day settlement of En Gedi, about 37 km south-southeast of Jerusalem on the edge of the Dead Sea.
En Gedi was an ideal hiding place not only because of its lush vegetation, but also because of its inaccessibility for David, who was persecuted by King Saul . The Bible therefore speaks of certain “hard-to-reach places in En-Gedi” ( 1 Sam 24.1 EU ). Today's visitors to the area have similarly described the dangerous, steep and rocky passes in this area. The designation "bald ibex rocks" 1 Sam 24.3 EU also indicates the inhospitable nature of certain parts of this landscape. According to some scholars, this designation is supposed to be a proper name for a certain area where ibex probably gathered, as still happens today in the area around En Gedi. Others, on the other hand, are of the opinion that this term only describes the conical, rugged mountains of this region inhabited by ibexes. The rocks of En Gedi are rich in spacious caves . King David and his men may have been hiding in one of these caves. It is believed by some that the “stone sheepfolds” at which Saul stopped could mean these caves, in front of whose entrance a simple stone wall served as weather protection.
In the time of King Josaphat the combined forces of Ammon , Moab and the mountainous region of Seir came via En Gedi, against Judah ( 2nd Chronicle 20 EU ). The vision of Ezekiel 47,10 EU also speaks of “from En-Gedi himself to En-Eglajim”.
On the settlement hill “Tel Goren” near the kibbutz, several layers of settlement from the 7th century BC to the 5th century AD have been identified. One of the excavated settlements was destroyed in the Jewish War in 68 AD ; According to the description of the ancient historian Flavius Josephus , the inhabitants of the city were killed by zealots who later fought against the Romans in nearby Masada (Bellum 4,402ff.).
At the time of the Bar Kochba uprising (132–135), followers of Bar Kochba were in the vicinity of En Gedi. In 1960, during an excavation led by Yigael Yadin in the so-called Cave of Letters about 6 km southwest of En Gedi, unique documents from the time of the uprising were discovered, including letters from Bar Kochba to the commanders of the rebels in En Gedi.
In 1970 a charred Hebrew scroll from the fourth century was found during excavations at the historic synagogue of En Gedi . From 2014, the examination of the scrolls using computed tomography and a subsequent analysis of the fragments' position was carried out. Thanks to the metallic ink used, part of the script could be deciphered and identified as the text of the third book of Moses.
The Ein Gedi race has been held in this special climatic region at the beginning of the year since 1983, with various routes, including a half marathon .
Kibbutz En Gedi
After the last settlement was abandoned in the 5th century, En Gedi remained uninhabited until an Israeli military post was established in 1949. The kibbutz was founded on February 26, 1953, it was inhabited by 588 kibbutznikim at the end of 2016 and towers over the surrounding area on its rocky plateau. Plants from many different countries have been planted on the site, particularly desert and tropical plants. This is how a botanical garden pervading the kibbutz was created .
Because of its location on the shores of the Dead Sea , tourism is one of the kibbutz's main industries. This consists of a hotel directly in the kibbutz and the Seebad En Gedi Spa , a medicinal bath that is fed from a 38 ° C hot sulfur spring.
The palm-rich beach section from which the Dead Sea was accessible, as well as the campsite, which was also on the shore of the Dead Sea, had to be closed.
The lowering of the sea level led to massive collapses of cavities (sinkholes), especially in the area of the campsite, so that the safety of the guests was threatened.
Between the “En Gedi Spa”, originally built close to the water, and today's beach, signs with year numbers illustrate the decline in the beach caused by the drop in sea level.
The agriculture , particularly the cultivation of dates and pomelos , the second main source of En Gedi. Turkey farming was abandoned after 1994. At the same time the construction of a mineral water filling plant was started. After just a few years, En-Gedi mineral water dominated a considerable part of the Israeli market.
The kibbutz has a sports hall, a cultural center with a cinema and a dining room.
En Gedi nature reserve
The En Gedi nature reserve covers 14 square kilometers and is home to some larger mammals, such as Palestine mountain gazelles , hyrax and Nubian ibex .
The Sulamitherin from the Song of Songs ( Hld 1,14 LUT ) alluded to the fertility of the area. However, that's only a partial description of the lush flora that still thrives there today. The special location of En-Gedi in the Depression of the Dead Sea favors the growth of subtropical plants such as palms and balsam bushes, as well as various fruits.
While the surrounding desert landscape is almost devoid of vegetation, the oasis, thanks to its abundance of water, provides the conditions for a lush flora and many animal species. The core area of the oasis are the two deeply cut valleys of the Nachal (Hebrew brook) Arugot and the Nachal David , in which the water of the surrounding areas comes to the surface. Tourists usually visit the several meters high Schulamit waterfall in Nachal David.
literature
- Dan Barag: Ein-Gedi . In: Lawrence H. Schiffman, James C. VanderKam (Eds.): Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls . Oxford / New York 2000, Volume I, pp. 238-240.
- Immanuel Benzinger : Engadi . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume V, 2, Stuttgart 1905, Col. 2562.
- Benjamin Mazar , Trude Dothan , Immanuel Dunayevsky: En-Gedi: The First and Second Seasons of Excavations 1961–1962. Atiqot / English Series 5. Jerusalem 1966
- Benjamin Mazar: Dan Barag: Art. En-Gedi . In: Michael Avi-Yonah (Ed.): Encyclopedia of archeological excavations in the Holy Land , Vol. 2. Israel Exploration Society, Jerusalem 1976, pp. 370-380.
- Naphtali Lewis: The Documents from the Bar Kokhba Period in the Cave of Letters: Greek Papyri, Aramaic and Nabatean Signatures and Subscriptions . Judean Desert Studies; 2. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society 1989. ISBN 965-221-009-9
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ אוכלוסייה ביישובים 2018 (population of the settlements 2018). (XLSX; 0.13 MB) Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , August 25, 2019, accessed May 11, 2020 .
- ↑ Benjamin Mazar: Chapter Tel Goren of Art. En-Gedi . In: Michael Avi-Yonah (Ed.): Encyclopedia of archeological excavations in the Holy Land , Vol. 2. Israel Exploration Society, Jerusalem 1976, pp. 372-377, here p. 373.
- ↑ Burned and yet not lost . In: NZZ , September 21, 2016
- ↑ Newsletter of the Embassy of the State of Israel of January 29, 2015
- ↑ Mordecai Naor: Eretz Israel. The 20th century. Könemann, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-89508-594-4 , p. 311
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated August 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on April 1, 2018
- ↑ Gazella gazella in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2011. Posted by: UCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group, 2008. Accessed July 26, 2011th
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