Hurshat Tal ( he, חורשת טל, lit. "Dew Grove") is a
national park and nature reserve in the
Northern District 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 ...
. In 1968, 765
dunam
A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...
s were declared national park lands (visitor facilities occupying approximately 250 dunams
) and 107 dunams were declared a nature reserve.
National Park
Hurshat Tal is located on Highway 99, east of
Kiryat Shmona
Kiryat Shmona ( he, קִרְיַת שְׁמוֹנָה, ''lit.'' Town of the Eight) is a city in the Northern District of Israel on the western slopes of the Hula Valley near the Lebanese border. The city was named after the eight people, includi ...
, in the northern part of the
Hula Valley
The Hula Valley ( he, עמק החולה, translit. ''Emek Ha-Ḥula''; also transliterated as Huleh Valley, ar, سهل الحولة) is an agricultural region in northern Israel with abundant fresh water, which used to be Lake Hula, prior t ...
. The recreation and camping grounds offer
bungalows
A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas.
The first house in England that was classified as a bu ...
and cabins. A
stream
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...
branching from the
Dan River
The Dan River flows in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Virginia. It rises in Patrick County, Virginia, and crosses the state border into Stokes County, North Carolina. It then flows into Rockingham County. From there it flows back int ...
crosses the site, feeding a
swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...
with water slides. A fishing park is also open to visitors.
[
The Hebrew name of the site is taken from referring to the "dew of ]Hermon
Mount Hermon ( ar, جبل الشيخ or جبل حرمون / ALA-LC: ''Jabal al-Shaykh'' ("Mountain of the Sheikh") or ''Jabal Haramun''; he, הַר חֶרְמוֹן, ''Har Hermon'') is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the ...
".
Nature Reserve
The reserve
Reserve or reserves may refer to:
Places
* Reserve, Kansas, a US city
* Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish
* Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County
* Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...
was declared mainly to protect the 240 old Valonia oak
''Quercus macrolepis'', the Valonia oak, is a species of oak in the beech family, Fagaceae. Formerly, it was commonly treated as a subspecies of the closely related and sympatric mount Tabor oak. At present, however, it is mostly granted specie ...
trees (''Quercus macrolepis'').[ These trees survived for many years as part of a local Muslim holy site. Some of the trees are 350–400 years old. Local ]folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
tells that ten of Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
's escorts
Escort may refer to:
Protection
* Bodyguard, a security operative who accompanies clients for their personal protection
*Police escort, a feature offered by law enforcement agencies to assist in transporting individuals
*Safety escort service, a ...
stopped nearby to rest, but could not find trees to which to tie their horses. They stuck their sticks into the ground, which became the origin of the trees in the area. The story is reflected in the Arabic name for the site, Sejrat el-Asara (''"Grove of the Ten"'').
See also
*Tourism in Israel
Tourism in Israel is one of Israel's major sources of income, with a record 4.55 million tourist arrivals in 2019, and, in 2017, contributed NIS 20 billion to the Israeli economy making it an all-time record. Israel offers a plethora of historica ...
*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 Western Asia. It is bounded to the north by Lebanon, the nort ...
*Nature reserves in Israel
National parks of Israel are declared historic sites or nature reserves, which are mostly operated and maintained by the National Nature and Parks Authority. As of 2015, Israel maintains 81 national parks and more than 400 nature reserves, m ...
References
External links
{{authority control
National parks of Israel
Nature reserves in Israel
Protected areas of Northern District (Israel)