Jezreel plain

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View from Nazerat Illit to the Jezreel plain
Emek Jizre'el

The Jezreel Plain ( Hebrew עֵמֶק יִזְרְעֶאל, transliterated : ʿEmeq Yizreʿel or Emek Jisre'el, literal meaning: Jezreel Valley or Valley of the Seed of God ; Arabic: Marj Ibn ʿAmr) is a plain in northern Israel between the mountains of Galilee and Samaria . Often the plain is simply called ha-Emek ("the valley"); in the Bible the term Esdrelontal occurs (Judith 3,9; 4,6). Emek Jizre'el is also the name of the district of the same name . The 90 km² large district with 35,900 inhabitants has existed since 1980 and administers 15 kibbutzim , 15 moshavim , six community settlements and two Bedouin villages .

geology

The valley was once a canal that connected the Mediterranean Sea at the northwestern end of the valley to the Sea of ​​Galilee , the Jordan Valley, and finally the Dead Sea. About two million years ago, when the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan Rift Valley was formed, this connection was lost and the periodic flooding from the Mediterranean Sea ceased. As a result, the Dead Sea was no longer connected to the sea and, in the course of time, became very salty due to greater evaporation than precipitation and the inflow of surface water. The Sea of ​​Galilee, on the other hand, consists of fresh water.

Geographical information

The Jezreel Plain is sometimes used to refer to the entire chain of valleys that extend from the Bay of Haifa in a south-easterly direction to the Jordan at Bet She'an . The valleys provide the only access from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River where no mountains have to be crossed.

If the term is used correctly, the term "Jezreel level" only refers to the central section of this chain. This smaller area corresponds to the triangle between the cities of Jokne'am , Nazareth and Jenin .

Correspondingly, the Carmel Mountains form a natural border of the plain in the west ; only north of Jokne'am in the Zevulun valley there is a natural connection to the sea near Haifa . In the north the depression is bounded by the abruptly sloping mountains of Galilee. In the east, along the mountains of Gilboa, the Harod valley and the valley of Bet She'an join the plain and thus form a connection to the deeper Jordan Rift . The mountains of Samaria limit the basin in the south. In the southeastern foothills of the Carmel, the road to Hadera connects to the Sharon plain via a pass .

The Jezreel Plain is the largest flat basin in Israel with an area of ​​365 square kilometers. The valley is drained by the Kishon River , which flows into the sea near Haifa. The adjoining valleys in the east are already below sea ​​level and drain to the Jordan.

The capital of the Jezreel plain is the city of Afula . There are many kibbutzim and moshavim ; and Nahalal , the oldest moshav, located in the Jezreel Valley. Since 2016, the area has again been connected to the railway network with the newly laid Haifa – Bet Sche'an railway; an extension of the route to Jordan is being considered.

history

Because of its central location and its streets, the Jezreel plain has always been a strategically important and contested area. The Bible also reports on battles in the Jezreel plain, e.g. B. in Judges 5,19 and 7.

Since the time of the Romans , the basin was largely swampy and there were only a few traffic routes. The fortress of Megiddo was at the most important crossroads and was therefore of great military importance for centuries (e.g. in the battle of Megiddo in 1457 BC), which is why the apocalyptic end-time struggle between good and evil often started with this place (cf. . Armageddon ) is associated.

The last important battles took place in the 20th century: In 1918 the English were able to decide the conquest of Palestine on the plain ; in the Palestine War in 1948, the Israeli army secured access to the northern parts of the country after a victory.

Jewish settlement of the Jezreel plain

The Jezreel plain was settled and used for agriculture by Arab farmers at the end of the 19th century . The settlements were in most cases on the surrounding safe mountain slopes, which was due to the periodic incursions of nomads .

The fertility of the plain is already mentioned in the travel records of the 19th century:

  • "Following the path to Ramleh, we came across Merj ibn Amr, an extensive and highly cultivated plain ..." (the US naval officer WF Lynch)
  • "... and without question this is the largest area of ​​contiguous arable land that is in the interior of western Palestine" ( Georg Ebers and Hermann Guthe )
  • "Readers will be amazed to learn that almost every morning of the Esdraelon Plain at this time is at the highest stage of cultivation ..." (British traveler Laurence Oliphant )

From 1901 the Jewish National Fund began buying up land from the owner of the entire plain (the Greek banker Sursuk from Beirut). In the middle of the 20th century, mainly by the Jewish settlers, the swamps were drained and the mountains and slopes were forested.

Today the area is one of the most intensively used agricultural areas in Israel because of its fertility.

Artistic processing

The Jezreel Valley also inspired many Israeli artists. So wrote Nathan Alterman 1934, the poem Song of the valley in which he describes a night in the valley and glorifies the agricultural pioneering work. Even Avraham Shlonsky discussed how u in poems. a. Rakevet the Jezreel Valley.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Haolam.info online (Wednesday, April 12, 2017)
  2. ^ Israel online today
  3. ↑ http://www.emekyizrael.org.il/
  4. ↑ on the entire section on geography see: Yehuda Karmon : Israel. A geographic study of the country . 2nd edition Darmstadt 1994, p. 167ff.
  5. ^ Anita Shapira: Land and Power - The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948 , Stanford University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8047-3776-2 , p. 213
  6. ^ Shachar Pinsker: Literary Passports - The Making of Modernist Hebrew Fiction in Europe , Stanford University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8047-7064-4 , p. 399

literature

Web links

Commons : Jezreel Valley  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 32 ° 35 ′ 47 "  N , 35 ° 14 ′ 31"  E