The Beit Netofa Valley ( he, בקעת בית נטופה) is a valley in the
Lower Galilee The Lower Galilee (; ar, الجليل الأسفل, translit=Al Jalil Al Asfal) is a region within the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. The Lower Galilee is bordered by the Jezreel Valley to the south; the Upper Galilee to t ...
region of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, midway between
Tiberias
Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's F ...
and
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the 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 metropol ...
. Covering 46 km
2, it is the largest valley in the mountainous part of the
Galilee
Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Gali ...
and one of the largest in the southern
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...
.
The name Beit Netofa Valley first appears in the
Mishna (''Shevi'it'' 9:5) and later in medieval rabbinical literature, receiving its name from the Roman-era Jewish settlement of Beth Netofa which stood at its northeastern edge. The valley's Arabic name is and as such appears as in
crusader documents.
Geography and climate
The valley is 16 km long and on average 3 km wide, a
graben
In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults.
Etymology
''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic conte ...
formed by two parallel east-west trending faults running to its north and south.
It lies between two
horsts forming the
Yodfat range to the north and the
Tur'an range to the south, basically separating the heart of the Galilee from Nazareth area.
Limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) 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 . Limestone forms w ...
hills to the east indicate the valley was also shaped by
karstic processes. Long and narrow and ringed by steep hills, the valley soil is fatty clay relatively impermeable to water,
leading to seasonal winter flooding, a phenomenon already described in the 14th century by
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
geographer
Al-Dimashqi.
On February 7, 1950, a meteorological station in the valley recorded the
lowest temperature ever recorded in Israel: -13.7°C. This extreme remained unsurpassed for over half a century in Israeli records until 2015, when the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights
The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...
experienced -14.2°C.
Settlements
As the valley floor is set under water by winter rains, and due to its high agricultural value, villages have only been established at the margins of the valley, where the terrain starts rising. These are, from west to east,
Kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
Hanaton
Hanaton ( he, חנתון) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located twelve kilometers north of Nazareth near the Arab town of Shefaram, it falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In it had a population of .
Etymology
The ...
,
Kafr Manda,
Rumana,
Uzeir
Uzeir ( ar, عزير; he, עֻזֵיר) is an Arab village in northern Israel. Located near Nazareth Illit in the Lower Galilee, it falls under the jurisdiction of al-Batuf Regional Council. In it had a population of .
History
Findings from th ...
,
Bu'eine Nujeidat
Bu'eine Nujeidat is an Arab local council in the Northern District of Israel. Made up of two villages, Bu'eine and Nujeidat, they merged in 1987 and were recognized as one local council in 1996. In its population was , the majority of which is ...
and
Eilabun
Eilabun ( ar, عيلبون ''Ailabun'', he, עַילַבּוּן, ) is an Arab Christian village located in the Beit Netofa Valley around south-west of Safed in northern Galilee between Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. It ihad a population of in ...
. The Jewish religious
community settlement
A community settlement ( he, יישוב קהילתי, ''Yishuv Kehilati'') is a type of village in Israel and the West Bank. While in an ordinary town anyone may buy property, in a community settlement the village's residents are organized in ...
of
Mitzpe Netofa
Mitzpe Netofa ( he, מִצְפֵּה נְטוֹפָה) is a religious community settlement in northern Israel. Located adjacent to the Arab village Tur'an, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Lower Galilee Regional Council
The Lower Galilee R ...
overlooks the valley from Mount Tur'an, which separates the Beit Netofa and
Tur'an valleys.
The fertile valley land is used for agriculture and is largely owned and cultivated by the inhabitants of settlements either in the valley itself, or from nearby areas. The latter category includes inhabitants of the Arab settlements of
Sakhnin,
Arraba and
Bi'ina
Bi'ina or al-Bi'na (also el-Baneh) ( ar, البعنة) is an Arab town in the Northern District of Israel. It is located east of Akko. In 2003, Bi'ina merged with Majd al-Krum and Deir al-Asad to form the city of Shaghur, but was reinstated as a ...
, and of the Jewish settlements of
Yodfat,
Zippori
Sepphoris (; grc, Σέπφωρις, Séphōris), called Tzipori in Hebrew ( he, צִפּוֹרִי, Tzipori),Palmer (1881), p115/ref> and known in Arabic as Saffuriya ( ar, صفورية, Ṣaffūriya) since the 7th century, is an archaeolog ...
and
Kibbutz HaSolelim.
National Water Carrier
The Beit Netofa Canal, a part of Israel's
National Water Carrier
National Water Carrier of Israel
The National Water Carrier of Israel ( he, המוביל הארצי, ''HaMovil HaArtzi'') is the largest water project in Israel, completed in 1964. Its main purpose is to transfer water from the Sea of Galilee ...
, runs through the valley. The 17-kilometer-long open canal was built with an oval base due to the clay soil. The width of the canal is 19.4 meters, the bottom is 12 meters wide and it is 2.60 meters deep. At the southwestern edge of the Beit Netofa Valley it reaches the two
Eshkol reservoirs, where the water is cleaned and tested before flowing south towards the
Negev
The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-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 sout ...
.
Archaeological sites
Several archaeological sites litter the valley. The earliest, Netofa I and II, date from the
Chalcolithic
The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "Rock (geology), stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin ''wikt:aeneus, aeneus'' "of copper"), is an list of archaeologi ...
period and are found on its hilly western flank near Kafr Manda. The
assemblages found at the sites are rich in flint artifacts and tools and include bifacial tools, scrapers, sickle blades and retouched blades. Finds also include an arrow head and pottery. The sites are farming villages of a size and richness previously unknown in the Chalcolithic Galilee.
Two
tells stand on the valley floor. The first is
Tel Hanaton
Tel Hanaton ( he, תל חנתון; ar, تل بدويه, translit=Tal Badawiye, lit=the nomads' tell) is an archaeological tell situated at the western edge of the Beit Netofa Valley, in the western Lower Galilee region of Israel, 2 km south of ...
(Tell Bedeiwiyeh), which occupies roughly 5 hectares and dominates the western end of the valley. Hanaton has been identified as the
Hinnatuni of the
Amarna letters
The Amarna letters (; sometimes referred to as the Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets, and cited with the abbreviation EA, for "El Amarna") are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between ...
, and according to the Bible, it and the surrounding regions fell under the control of the
tribe of Zebulun.
The second tell,
Tell el-Wayiwat, is 0.4 hectares in size and rises 3.5 meters above the valley floor at its eastern edge.
Two seasons of excavations were carried out at the site in 1986 and 1987 by Beth Alpert Nakhai, J.P. Dessel and Bonnie L. Wisthoff on behalf of the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first ...
, the
William F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and the
American Schools of Oriental Research
The American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR), founded in 1900 as the American School of Oriental Study and Research in Palestine, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Alexandria, Virginia which supports the research and teaching of ...
.
These have revealed five major strata, dating from the
Middle Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pr ...
through to the 11th century BCE, in the
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...
.
At the valley's northeastern edge stands the site of ancient Beth Netofa, its name preserved in the Arab place name, Khirbet Natif. It shows signs of habitation from the
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...
through the Persian and Roman periods and up to medieval times.
Nearby, next to
Highway 65 that runs along the eastern edge of the valley, lies
Hurvat Amudim, another Roman-era Jewish settlement.
Khirbet Qana
Khirbet Qana ( ar, خربة قانا), is an archaeological site in the Lower Galilee of Israel. It has remains of a settlement from the Hellenistic to the Early Arab period. It has been associated with the Marriage at Cana of the New Testament.
B ...
, on the north edge of the valley, has long been recognized as the biblical
Cana of Galilee, the site of
Jesus' first miracle (John 2:11).
See also
*
Al-Batuf Regional Council
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
{{Coord, 32, 48, 34.44, N, 35, 19, 56.86, E, region:IL, display=title
Valleys of Israel
Landforms of Northern District (Israel)
National Water Carrier of Israel
Rifts and grabens