Rosh HaNikra or Hanikra ( he, ראש הנקרה, "Head of the Grotto"; ar, رأس الناقورة, Ras an-Nakura) is a
geologic formation
A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...
on the border between Israel and Lebanon, located on the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...
, in the
Western 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 Galile ...
. It is a white
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...
cliff face which opens up into spectacular
grotto
A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or prehistorically. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high ti ...
s.
The Rosh HaNikra grottoes are cavernous tunnels formed by sea action on the soft chalk rock. The total length of the tunnels is some 200 meters. They branch off in various directions with some interconnecting segments. A tunnel was built by the British for the Haifa-Beirut railroad line, and in 1968 a second one was dug, both connecting the grottoes with each other and allowing access (currently: only exit) along the former route of the British railroad. For many years though, the only access to the grottoes was from the sea and the native swimmers and divers were the only ones capable of visiting. The 400 meters long tunnel dug in 1968 between the grottoes and slightly above sea level allowed easier access, and soon after a
cable car was built to take visitors down from the top of the cliff to the tunnels. With a 60-degree gradient, this cable car is advertised as the steepest in the world.
A
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 ...
, also named
Rosh HaNikra, is located nearby. The Israeli city
Nahariya
Nahariya ( he, נַהֲרִיָּה, ar, نهاريا) is the northernmost coastal city in Israel. In it had a population of .
Etymology
Nahariya takes its name from the stream of Ga'aton (river is ''nahar'' in Hebrew), which bisects it.
Hist ...
is located about 10 km (6 miles) south of Rosh HaNikra.
Recognition of the potential offered by the unusual Rosh Hanikra grottoes led to the development of this beautiful site as a tourist attraction for Northern Israel. The project was spearheaded by Bawer Mizna as Mayor of one of the kibbutzim as well as an Arab town. He and his wife, Miriam, were among the original settlers of the area and of the nearby kibbutz, Matzuvah.
History
Hebrew Bible to Roman period
The
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua ( he, סֵפֶר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ ', Tiberian: ''Sēp̄er Yŏhōšūaʿ'') is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Isra ...
mentions "Misraphot Mayim" as a place south of Rosh HaNikra that was the border of the
Israelite
The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan.
The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...
tribes of the time. In the
First Book of the Maccabees, the "
Ladder of Tyre
Ladder of Tyre (Aramaic: ''Sûlama de Ṣôr''), ( gr, Ἡ κλίμαξ Τύρου), also known as the Ladder of the Tyrians and the Promontory of Tyre, is a geographical feature mentioned in Greek and Hebrew sources, distinguished by a littoral ...
" is referred to as the northern border of the territory under the governorship of
Simon Maccabaeus
Simon Thassi ( he, ''Šīməʿōn haTassī''; died 135) was the second son of Mattathias and thus a member of the Hasmonean family.
Names
The name "Thassi" has a connotation of "the Wise", a title which can also mean "the Director", "the ...
in 144 BCE (
1 Maccabees
The First Book of Maccabees, also known as First Maccabees (written in shorthand as 1 Maccabees or 1 Macc.), is a book written in Hebrew by an anonymousRappaport, U., ''47. 1 Maccabees'' in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001)The Oxford Bible Comme ...
).
Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...
Flavius also describes Rosh Hanikra as the northern border of the city of
Acre, Israel
Acre ( ), known locally as Akko ( he, עַכּוֹ, ''ʻAkō'') or Akka ( ar, عكّا, ''ʻAkkā''), is a city in the coastal plain region of the Northern District of Israel.
The city occupies an important location, sitting in a natural harb ...
. (
The Jewish War
''The Jewish War'' or ''Judean War'' (in full ''Flavius Josephus' Books of the History of the Jewish War against the Romans'', el, Φλαυίου Ἰωσήπου ἱστορία Ἰουδαϊκοῦ πολέμου πρὸς Ῥωμαίους ...
2, 10, 2). The archaeological
tell is today situated within the
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 ...
.
In the
First Book of Maccabees
The First Book of Maccabees, also known as First Maccabees (written in shorthand as 1 Maccabees or 1 Macc.), is a book written in Hebrew by an anonymousRappaport, U., ''47. 1 Maccabees'' in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001)The Oxford Bible Comme ...
(), a cape in this region is referred to as the "Ladder of Tyre" ( he, סולם צור; gr, Η κλίμαξ Τύρου); the author could have meant either the cliffs at Rosh HaNikra, or one of two other capes jutting out into the sea slightly north or south of them. The site was later named an-Nawakir ("The Grottoes") by the Arabs.
WWII and after: railway and conflicts
![Paulet–Newcombe Agreement Sheet I](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Paulet%E2%80%93Newcombe_Agreement_Sheet_I.jpg)
Rosh HaNikra has served as a passage point for trade caravans and armies between Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Egypt, and Africa. In 1942, during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, after the
Allied capture of Vichy-ruled Lebanon, the Haifa-Acre extension of the
Hijaz Railway was further expanded into Lebanon for military purposes, which also entailed quarrying the tunnels at Ras el-Nakurah.
This allowed for a railway connection between Haifa and the cities of
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
to the south and Beirut to the north, the latter already being connected to
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
and
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
, or to
Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
and then via the Hijaz line to
Amman
Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...
.
[ It was the ]South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n contingent who blasted the tunnels.
The railway bridge at Rosh HaNikra was spared by the Haganah
Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...
during the 1946 Night of the Bridges
The Night of the Bridges (formally Operation Markolet) was a Haganah venture on the night of 16 to 17 June 1946 in the British Mandate of Palestine, as part of the Jewish insurgency in Palestine (1944–7). Its aim was to destroy eleven bridges l ...
operation but, following a late-1947 British announcement that it would withdraw from Palestine months ahead of schedule, the bridge was destroyed by the 21st Battalion under the Palmach
The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Companies") was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach ...
in late February 1948 to hinder Lebanese arms shipments to Arab forces opposing the UN Partition Plan
The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations, which recommended a partition of Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted the Plan as R ...
. As repairs were prohibitively expensive, the tunnels were later completely sealed. The Lebanese railways
Rail transport in Lebanon began in the 1890s as French projects under the Ottoman Empire but largely ceased in the 1970s owing to the country's civil war. The last remaining routes ended for economic reasons in the 1990s. At its peak Lebanon had ...
have been largely dismantled while the Coastal Railway in Israel currently ends near Nahariya
Nahariya ( he, נַהֲרִיָּה, ar, نهاريا) is the northernmost coastal city in Israel. In it had a population of .
Etymology
Nahariya takes its name from the stream of Ga'aton (river is ''nahar'' in Hebrew), which bisects it.
Hist ...
, several kilometers to the south.
Rosh Hanikra was the location where Israeli and Lebanese officials negotiated and concluded an armistice agreement in 1949 which ended the Lebanese-Israeli component of the 1948 War of Israeli Independence. A border passage across the Blue Line into Lebanon at the site is sometimes used by UNIFIL
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon ( ar, قوة الأمم المتحدة المؤقتة في لبنان, he, כוח האו"ם הזמני בלבנון), or UNIFIL ( ar, يونيفيل, he, יוניפי״ל), is a UN peacekeeping m ...
personnel.
Nature reserves and national park
The area around Rosh HaNikra includes a number of nature reserves:
* The Rosh HaNikra islands - 311 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 declared in 1965
* The Rosh HaNikra reserve - 500 dunams declared in 1969, and an additional 765 dunams in 1996.
* Rosh HaNikra beach - 230 dunams, declared in 2003
The Rosh HaNikra national park also has jurisdiction of 220 dunams in the area.
Cable car
The Rosh HaNikra cable car is a cable car serving tourists wishing to visit the grottoes. The cable car is situated very close to the Lebanese border. The site is popular with tourists, and is one of the facilities available for tourists in 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 ...
Rosh HaNikra. The cable car was manufactured by Austrian manufacturer Doppelmayr Garaventa Group
Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group is an international manufacturer of ropeways and people movers for ski areas, urban transport, amusement parks, and material handling systems. As of 2019, the group have produced over 15,000 installations in 96 countri ...
, and claims to be the steepest cable car in the world, ascending at a gradient of 60 degrees. Although its lower base station is located on the sea, the cable car is occasionally affected by stormy weather. The Israeli Sign Language
Israeli Sign Language, also known as Shassi or ISL, is the most commonly used sign language by the Deaf community of Israel. Some other sign languages are also used in Israel, among them Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language.
History
The history of ...
sign for Rosh HaNikra derives from this cable car, as it emulates its motion.
See also
*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 ...
*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 ...
*Hiking in Israel
Hiking is important in Israel, with over 9,656 km (6,000 miles) of trails. In May 2015, Google Street View, in cooperation with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), announced plans to photograph the full length of the ...
References
Gallery
Image:Rosh HaNikra.jpg
Image:Rosh HaNikra Grottoes 1.jpg
Image:Rosh HaNikra Grottoes 2.jpg
Image:Rosh HaNikra Grottoes 3.jpg
Image:Rosh HaNikra grottoes.jpg
Image:PICT0080.JPG
File:Inside the Rosh Hanikra cave05.jpg
External links
Rosh HaNikra Official Site- Hebrew
Rosh HaNikra Official Site- English
* .
* .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosh Hanikra Grottoes
Caves of Israel
National parks of Israel
Nature reserves in Israel
Grottoes
Sea caves
Protected areas of Northern District (Israel)
Landforms of Northern District (Israel)
Rosh HaNikra cable car