Kerem Tunnel (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: מנהרת כרם, ''Minheret Kerem'') is a

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

in southwest

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

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 ...

. It is currently the only

cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

tunnel in Israel. The tunnel was originally built in the 1990s by

Hagihon Hagihon Ltd. (Hebrew: הגיחון) is the municipal water and waste water works corporation for the city of Jerusalem, Israel. Since 2010, Hagihon also services the neighboring towns of Mevaseret Zion and Abu Gosh. Hagihon is Israel's largest w ...

(Jerusalem's water company) to run a sewage pipe from the city's southwestern neighborhoods to the Sorek stream

sewage treatment plant Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding envir ...

. The tunnel is 2.1 kilometers long and 3 meter wide. In 2018, surrounding several large

cyclosportive A cyclosportive, or often simply sportive, is a short to long distance, organised, mass-participation cycling event, typically held annually. The Italian term '' Gran Fondo'' is commonly used for these events in the United States, Australia and so ...

events, the tunnel was officially made a part of the Jerusalem Ring Path, a 42-kilometer cycling route, connecting the path between the

valley of Rephaim The Valley of Rephaim ( he, עמק רפאים, ''Emeq Rephaim'') (; , R.V.) or Valley of the Rephaim,Jerusalem Bible (1966) adds "the": 1 Chronicles 14:9 is a valley descending southwest from Jerusalem to Nahal Sorek below, it is an ancient route fr ...

and the valley of

Motza Motza, also Mozah or Motsa, ( he, מוֹצָא, ar, موتسا) is a neighbourhood on the western edge of West Jerusalem. It is located in the Judean Hills, 600 metres above sea level, connected to Jerusalem by the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv highway ...

. The Tunnel's southern entrance is in the Rephaim Park, below

Ein Lavan Ein Lavan () is a spring located in the outskirts of Jerusalem, 2 km east of the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. It lies in the Judean Mountains. Ein Lavan springs in the Lavan Ridge, just above the northern bank of Nahal Refaim, and is surrounded b ...

, and its northern entrance is in the valley of

Ein Kerem ar, عين كارم , settlement_type = Neighborhood of Jerusalem , image_skyline = Ein Karem IMG 0624.JPG , imagesize = 300px , image_caption = View of Ein Karem , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_ ...

, about half a kilometer from the Kerem junction. The tunnel was opened for cyclists in September 2022.

References

Cycling in Israel Transport in Jerusalem Tunnels in Israel Cycling tunnels {{Cycling-stub