Nahal Amud (), also known as the Wadi al-Amud, is 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 strea ...

in the

Upper Galilee The Upper Galilee (, ''HaGalil Ha'Elyon''; , ''Al Jaleel Al A'alaa'') is a geographical region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Part of the larger Galilee region, it is characterized by its higher elevations and mountainous terra ...

region of

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 ...

that flows into 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 ...

History

The source of the stream, Ramat Dalton, is located 800 meters above sea level. Its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

includes the peaks of Mount Canaan (955 meters) and Mount Meron (1,204 meters) and flows south through eastern Galilee to the northwest part of the Sea of Galilee – a height of less than 200 meters below

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 ...

. The stream is named after a pillar that rises high above ground and is located near a channel of the stream near Kibbutz

Hukok Hukok () is a kibbutz in Israel. Located near the Sea of Galilee and the cities of Tiberias and Safed, it falls under the jurisdiction of Emek HaYarden Regional Council. In it had a population of . History In 1945, the Hukok fort was built by ...

. The gorge that forms the channel at this point holds many caves once inhabited by ''

Homo heidelbergensis ''Homo heidelbergensis'' is a species of archaic human from the Middle Pleistocene of Europe and Africa, as well as potentially Asia depending on the taxonomic convention used. The species-level classification of ''Homo'' during the Middle Pleis ...

'' and later by

Neanderthal Man Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. Neanderthal extinction ...

such as the cave at Zuttiyeh and the Amud cave. They were the object of the first paleoanthropological excavations in

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

in 1925–1926. The caves contained

hominin The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the genus '' Gorilla'' ( gorillas) ...

remains as well as

Mousterian The Mousterian (or Mode III) is an Industry (archaeology), archaeological industry of Lithic technology, stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and with the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and We ...

and

Acheulean Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated with ''Homo ...

artifacts. Most of Nahal Amud (8923

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s) was declared a nature reserve in 1972.

Tributaries

The

tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...

of the stream: *

Meron Stream Meron may refer to: People * Meron (surname), including a list of people with the name * Meron Amanuel (born 1990), Eritrean cyclist * Meron Benvenisti (born 1934), Israeli political scientist * Meron Getnet (fl. from 2013), Ethiopian actress, ...

Akbara Stream Akbara () is an Arab village in the Israeli municipality of Safed, which included in 2010 more than 200 families. It is 2.5 km south of Safed City. The village was rebuilt in 1977, close to the old village destroyed in 1948 during the 1 ...

Shamai Stream Shammai (c. 50 BCE – c. 30 CE, , ''Šammaʾy'') also known as Shammai the Elder (שַׁמַּאי הַזָּקֵן) was a Jewish scholar of the 1st century and an important figure in Judaism's core work of rabbinic literature, the Mishnah. ...

Livnim Stream Livnim (, ''lit.'' Birches) is a community settlement in northern Israel. Located northwest of the Sea of Galilee in the western Ginosar Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of Merom HaGalil Regional Council. In it had a population of . Hi ...

Hukok Stream Hukok () is a kibbutz in Israel. Located near the Sea of Galilee and the cities of Tiberias and Safed, it falls under the jurisdiction of Emek HaYarden Regional Council. In it had a population of . History In 1945, the Hukok fort was built b ...

Nahal Hozim Nahal () (acronym of ''Noar Halutzi Lohem'', lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities, as well as training in entrepr ...

The drainage basin of the stream is bordered by the

Korazim Stream Korazim () is a community settlement in northern Israel. Located on the Korazim plateau to the north of the Sea of Galilee, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The village w ...

and the Zalmon Stream.

Gallery

File:HukokCanalApril2023 05.jpg, Looking north from Nahal Amud lookout File:HukokCanalApril2023 08.jpg, Looking south from Nahal Amud lookout File:HukokCanalApril2023 07.jpg, Water flows from the open Canal of the

National Water Carrier of Israel image:National Water Carrier of Israel -en.svg, National Water Carrier of Israel The National Water Carrier of Israel (, ''HaMovil HaArtzi'') is the largest water project in Israel, completed in 1964. Its main purpose is to transfer water from ...

into the inverted siphon in Nahal Amud and to the open canal on the other side File:HukokCanalApril2023 11.jpg, The inverted siphon in Nahal Amud

References

External links

Amud stream @ eretz.com
Rivers of Israel Nature reserves in Israel Archaeological sites in Israel Prehistoric sites in Israel Protected areas of Northern District (Israel) Neanderthal sites Sea of Galilee {{paleo-site-stub

History

Tributaries

Gallery

See also

References

External links