The Upper Galilee (, ''HaGalil Ha'Elyon''; , ''Al Jaleel Al A'alaa'') is a geographical region located in northern

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and southern Lebanon. Part of the larger

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

region, it is characterized by its higher elevations and mountainous terrain. The term "Upper Galilee" is ancient, and has been in use since the end of the

Second Temple period The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...

. From a political perspective, the Upper Galilee is situated within the administrative boundaries of the Northern District of Israel. The Upper Galilee is known for its natural beauty, including lush landscapes, Mediterranean forests, and scenic vistas. Significant natural sites include

Nahal Amud Nahal Amud (), also known as the Wadi al-Amud, is a stream in the Upper Galilee region of Israel that flows into the Sea of Galilee. History The source of the stream, Ramat Dalton, is located 800 meters above sea level. Its drainage basin inclu ...

and the Keshet Cave. It's also an area where vineyards and wineries thrive, producing quality wines. Mount Meron stands as the highest point in the area, reaching an elevation of 1,208 meters above sea level.

Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...

is a main city in the region and also hosts an

artists' quarter The Artists' Quarter (a.k.a. the AQ) was a well-known musician-owned and operated jazz club in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Twin Cities. History The club opened in the early 1970s in Minneapolis, Minnesota at 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue South. ...

that was a major center of Israeli art. Safed street

Although historical definitions encompass parts of southern Lebanon within the boundaries of the Upper Galilee, the Lebanese government does not use the term "Galilee" for any part of its territory.

Boundaries

Originally, the term "Upper Galilee" referred to a larger region, encompassing the mountainous regions of what is today northern Israel and southern Lebanon. The boundaries of this region were the

Litani River The Litani River (), the classical Leontes (), is an important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile Beqaa Valley, west of Baalbek, and empties into the Mediterranean Sea north of Tyre. Exceeding in length, the ...

in the north, 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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

in the west, the

Lower Galilee The Lower Galilee (; ) is a region within the Northern District of Israel. The Lower Galilee is bordered by the Jezreel Valley to the south; the Upper Galilee to the north, from which it is separated by the Beit HaKerem Valley; the Jordan Rift ...

in the south (from which it is separated by the Beit HaKerem Valley), and the upper

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

and the Hula Valley in the east. According to the first century Jewish historian

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

, the bounds of Upper Galilee stretched from Bersabe in the Beit HaKerem Valley to Baca (Peki'in) in the north, and from Meloth to Thella. The extent of this region is approximately 470 km². In present-day usage, the

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...

mainly refers only to the northern part of the

that is under Israeli sovereignty. That is, the term today does not include the portion of Southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, or the corresponding stretches of the

Israeli Coastal Plain The Israeli coastal plain () is the State of Israel, Israeli segment of the Levantine coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea, extending north to south. It is a geographical region defined Geomorphology, morphologically by the sea, in terms of to ...

to the west, or the

Jordan Rift Valley The Jordan Rift Valley, also Jordan Valley ( ''Bīqʿāt haYardēn'', Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr), is an elongated endorheic basin located in modern-day Israel, Jordan and the West Bank, Palestine. This geographic region includes the entire length o ...

to the east. These are considered to be separate geographical areas that are not part of “Upper Galilee.”

History

Ancient times

The Upper Galilee is home to numerous significant ancient synagogues, dating from

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

times. Those include the synagogues of Bar'am, Nabratein, Gush Halav, Huqoq,

Chorazin Chorazin ( ; also Chorazain) or Korazim (; also Chorizim) was an ancient village in the Roman and Byzantine periods, best known from the Christian Gospels. It stood on the Korazim Plateau in the Upper Galilee on a hill above the northern shore ...

, Meron and a few others. Remains of synagogues has also been found in Qision and

Alma Alma or ALMA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film * ''Alma'', an upcoming film by Sally Potter * ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922 * ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017 * ''Alma'' ( ...

Modern period

Following the dissolution of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and the

Balfour Declaration The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman regio ...

in which the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

promised to create "A Jewish National Home" in Palestine, the

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

Movement presented to the Versailles Peace Conference a document calling for including in the British Mandate of Palestine the entire territory up to the

Litani river The Litani River (), the classical Leontes (), is an important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile Beqaa Valley, west of Baalbek, and empties into the Mediterranean Sea north of Tyre. Exceeding in length, the ...

—with a view to this becoming eventually part of a future Jewish state. However, only less than half this area was actually included in British Mandatory Palestine, the final border being influenced both by diplomatic maneuverings and struggles between Britain and France and by fighting on the ground, especially the March 1920 battle of Tel Hai. For a considerable time after the border was defined so to make the northern portion of the territory concerned part of the French mandated territory that became Lebanon, many Zionist geographers—and Israeli geographers in the state's early years—continued to speak of "The Upper Galilee" as being "the northern sub-area of the

region of

and

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

". Under this definition, "The Upper Galilee" covers an area spreading over 1,500 km², about 700 in Israel and the rest in Lebanon. This included the highland region of Belad Bechara in

Jabal Amel Jabal Amil (; also spelled Jabal Amel and historically known as Jabal Amila) is a cultural and geographic region in Southern Lebanon largely associated with its long-established, predominantly Twelver Shia Muslim inhabitants. Its precise boundari ...

located in South Lebanon, which was at for some time known in Hebrew as "The Lebanese Galilee". As defined in geographical terms, "it is separated from the

by the Beit HaKerem valley; its mountains are taller and valleys are deeper than those in the

; its tallest peak is Har Meron at 1,208 m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

is one of the major cities in this region". In recent decades, however, this usage has virtually disappeared from the general Israeli discourse, the term "Upper Galilee" being used solely in reference to the part located in Israel.

In art

The Upper Galilee region, specifically the city of

was a centre of Israeli and Jewish art since 1920 when the

School of Paris The School of Paris (, ) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance of Paris as a centre o ...

painter,

Yitzhak Frenkel Yitzhak Frenkel (; 1899–1981), also known as Isaac Frenkel or Alexandre Frenel, was an Israeli painter, sculptor and teacher. He was one of the leading Jewish artists of the School of Paris, l’École de Paris and its chief practitioner in Is ...

visited the region and was the first to settle in Safed where he later established an art school. In Safed was established the Artists' quarter of Safed. Safed harbored mysticism and was reminiscent of picturesque villages, which drew artists such as Frenkel,

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

, Moshe Castel, Mordechai Levanon and others. Artists were drawn to the upper galilee due to its mountainous landscapes and "mysticsm". Prior to the air conditioner, Safed also attracted artists due to its climatic conditions which were more comfortable than Tel Aviv during the summer. Safed also offered different themes for the artists, from the Klezmer musicians to the Hasidim and the city itself. Mount Meron was also an object in artworks by Jewish artists with artists such as Frenkel and Rolly Schaffer painting serene or fiery scenes of sunset over the mountain.

Gallery

Image:Upper Galilee 123.JPG, Mountainous area in the Upper Galilee Image:Baydar.jpg, Ain Ebel in the Lebanese Upper Galilee Image:Meron_124PAN.jpg, A view looking north from the top of Har Meron in the Upper Galilee. Parts of southern Lebanon are visible in the background Image:GalileeRoshPina.JPG, Old road from Rosh Pinna to

, Upper Galilee, Israel Image:PikiWiki Israel 4518 Keshet Cave.JPG, The Keshet Cave (a

natural arch A natural arch, natural bridge, or (less commonly) rock arch is a natural landform where an arch has formed with an opening underneath. Natural arches commonly form where inland cliffs, Cliffed coast, coastal cliffs, Fin (geology), fins or Stack ...

) located on a ridge near Nahal Betzet Image:Amud stream.JPG, The Amud river Image:Safed 2009.jpg,

Image:Karmiel.jpg, Karmiel Image:AmudHorses.JPG, Horses roam in Amud stream, near the

Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee (, Judeo-Aramaic languages, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ), also called Lake Tiberias, Genezareth Lake or Kinneret, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth ...

References

External links

www.galil-elion.org.il

The Upper Galilee Museum of Prehistory
{{Authority control Historical regions in Israel Regions of Israel Regions of Lebanon Wine regions of Israel