{N}GEOGRAPHY{/}

{C}"Yet God has chosen what the world considers weak, 
to shame the strong" {/}[1Cor_1,27].
Taken from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, these words perfectly illustrate the situation of Palestine on the map of human geography. This small and impoverished land did not seem predestined to play any relevant role in history at any rate. Nevertheless, from the mystery of his wisdom God chose it to celebrate his covenant with his people: here {C} the Word was made flesh; he had his tent pitched among us{/} [Jn_1,14].
Enclosed by the Mediterranean Sea from the West and the plain of Jordan from the East, the Holy Land is composed of three parallel zones that extend from north to south.
1. The most western one is a coastal plain, which is surrounded by a continuous line of sand dunes and bounded by the spur of Mount Carmel. It has been consecutively named the plain of Zebulun, the plain of Saron, and Sefela.
2. Secondly, there are found the various mountains that form the central range of the country. The transversal plain of Jezreel runs across this range. North of it are the mounts of High Galilee, from which the isolated peaks of Tabor and More become detached towards the south. On the middle of the country the hills of Samaria and Judaea continue this range that descends gradually south of Hebron, and rises again farther in the Negev.
3. This line of peaks dominates from the eastern border the hollow of Ghor, which is inscribed within the great rift that extends from the North of Syria to the great African lakes. At the bottom of this hollow, the river Jordan descends towards the Dead Sea after feeding Tiberias Lake with its waters. This river has its source at the foothill of mount Hermon, at the north of the country.
Metulla lies on the latitude of 33\u00ba17' N, totally north of the country.
To the south lies Taba, which is 8 kms from Eilat, and marks the border at 29\u00ba30' north latitude.
Jerusalem lies at longitude 35\u00ba13' east, and latitude 31\u00ba46' north. The time difference with Greenwich is here of two hours and twenty minutes.

{K}- THE COASTAL PLAIN{/}
Composed of alluvial deposits torn off by winter rains from the calcareous rocks of the central range, the coastal plain appears today as a prosperous agricultural area. But this recent condition should not make us forget that the biggest part of this plain was unhealthy and not suitable for any crop for milleniums. In particular, this was the case for the whole biblical period. Along the coast, the line of dunes has blocked the water from flowing into the sea from the central range. Since the alluvial deposits were stacked over a base of impermeable sandstone (originated from transformations undergone by previously existing sands) they turned into marshes.

{K}THE DRYING UP OF THE MARSHES{/}
Apparently early in the Roman period there was carried out a serious attempt to dry up the coastal plain. It was then likely opened a way for the waters of the Nahal Poleg to flow through the coastal line, north of present day Tel - Aviv. But it was not until the XX century that the modern technicians fully exploited the coastal plain. To dry up the marshes the surface water was drained and kept in spacious pools that subsequently would serve as reserves for the rational irrigation of the crops. Besides that, the sandstone base was drilled to facilitate the water to flow in deeper. This also helped the formation of new underground water layers.
The sanitation of the shore has brought right away a dramatic soar of agriculture, capable now to fully exploit the good raining conditions of this region. For the whole winter cold rains alternate with lighter showers resulting in a yearly water rate equivalent to 600 mm.
The massif of Mount Carmel dominates Saron's plain, north of which the banana trees plantations are particularly prosperous. South from there, and all over the central part of the coastal plain, fields of cotton, corn, and all kinds of horticultural crops extend as far as the eye can see. The citric crops line up evenly on the old red sand dunes. Particularly are found the orange groves whose fruits are worldwide exported. Southerly is found Sefela, the also called "Lower Land" in the Bible. This was the land of the ancient Philistines whose name was adopted, and subsequently transformed, by the whole country as{N} Palestine{/}. There can be found on the low hills, olive trees and vineyards, typical crops on Mediterranean region.

{K}THE URBANIZATION OF THE COAST{/}
This fast cultivation has brought an important development of the habitat and an economic soar affecting the industrial as well as the tertiary sector. The cities of Haifa, Tel - Aviv, and Ashdod, together with their vast suburbs presently house half of the population of the state of Israel.
The heavy industry and the refineries are found in the industrial zone of Haifa, which extends over the southern part of the plain of Zebulun. The prosperity of Tel-Aviv's mass of people relies on the diamond cutting (in which the country is world leader), on the agrarian factories, on chemical industries, and various manufacturing centers, together with the establishment of the headquarters from banking societies and companies, either national or foreign.
The rocky base of the shore is formed mainly by emerged sandstone stratums, and facilitated since ancient times the establishment of middle-sized sea ports. The most known are Tantura also called Dor, the Tower of Estraton (which turned to be Caesarea during the period of Herod the Great), Arsuf and Jope (presently named Jafa).
Twenty kilometers north from Mount Carmel the coast projects a peak that used to protect the marina of Akko, subsequently named Tolemaida, and later Saint John of Acre. But it was late in the XIX century when the port of Haifa arose and grew. For the last few years, the southern port of Ashdod prevails in importance, due to the relevant goods exported from there. The minerals extracted from the Dead Sea region that are treated in the large chemical plants of The Negev arrive there.

{K}- THE CENTRAL RANGE{/}
The central range of Palestine rises to the east of the coastal plain. It is the southerly extension of the range of Lebanon, which exceeds 3000 meters in height around Tripoli and descends gradually from High Galilee to The Negev.

{K}THE HIGH GALILEE{/}
North of the country, in the High Galilee, the massif is elevated. Its average height is 800 meters, but the peaks normally exceed 1000 m, Mount Merom being the most important (1208 m). A foothill extends from there to the Mediterranean, and the eastern side of the cliff dominates (from 500 to 700 meters) the high valley of the Jordan, with which it is joined through steep slopes.
Firmly deeply - rooted on a hard limestone, the original forest has withstood quite easily the anarchic tree felling, which has beaten against this region for centuries. Since ancient times until recently, this plain of the High Galilee has been very poorly inhabited. Safed is the most renowned city among those lying on the slopes of this massif of the High Galilee. It was the mother country for many artists, and a remarkable place for the Cabbala since XV century.
The limit between the High and the Low Galilee is marked by a depression, which provides a pass from Akko to the high valley of river Jordan. Here the massif is less homogeneous, transversal faults cut the outlines of hills that hardly exceed 500 m of height. In the middle of the plains, some unusual and isolated peaks like Mount Turan are found. It divides in two the rich plain of Bet - Netofa. The same thing can be said about mount Tabor, standing with its 588 m of height on the northern border of the plain of Yizreel, which it divides in the middle. The massif of Mount Carmel should be added to this list, but in a different way. From its western side its chains descend parallel and in a large number towards the coastal plain, where they often end up being cliffs. Its eastern side dominates the river Quison, from al line of rounded peaks with sharp slopes.
On the hills the almond trees coexist with the olive trees, while on the plains the cotton prevails over cereals and traditional horticultural crops. Nazareth on the heights, and Afula on the plain are still the most important cities. However the region is rich enough to host a large number of crowded villages.

{K}THE BASALTIC ZONE{/}
The limestone composing the mounts of Low Galilee is covered by a thick layer of basalt in the neighborhood of the lake. The basalt originates in tectonic movements which shook this region during the Quaternary period. The volcanic eruption of Jebel Druze is the most important and recent. Its lava extended all over an area of 100 km in radius, widely exceeding the Jordan River rift westwards. The lime's decomposition due to erosion generated a brown soil, which accumulates on the plain. Up on the meseta a similar process of erosion and decomposition has generated a soil of darker brown and also very fertile.

{K}THE CENTRAL REGION{/}
A group of very low hills continues the landscape between Mount Carmel and the hills of Samaria; but here the altitude is remarkably different. Two renowned mounts form the pass where the present-day city of de Naplus lies: the Ebal and the Garizim. The first of them stands 930 m, and the second 880. To the east, the whole massif maintains its height over Ghor, but many deep cuts make easier the descent. However, to the west quite easy passes provide access to the coastal plain. Many bare hills, where the gray limestone stretches all over wide plates, alternate with high plains covered by crops carefully planted on terraces. Those are maintained thanks to a careful work. As it happens in Galilee, also in the reduced interior plains the soil coming from the decomposition of the limestone brought by the rainfalls from the hillsides is exploited.
To the south, the central range is called the mounts of Ephraim. The small interior plains lead to a narrower valley, which merge through passes of little height. They trace a natural north-to-south route used for milleniums. The average altitude of this pass is about 600 m, however higher mounts surround it. The highest stands over 1000 m.
The meseta of Benjamin prolongs to the south all the extension of the mount of Ephraim: a line of hills, the southerner of which is the Mount of the Olive Trees (818 m). This line is the eastern outline and dominates the slopes of Judaean desert; we are on the same latitude as Jerusalem.

{K}IN THE NEGEV NEIGHBORHOOD{/}
The natural pass in the way to the coastal plain is surrounded by hills covered by a wide forest. This forest continues southwards covering the west slope of the central range, known as hills of Judaea. The top of the meseta reaches 1.000 m of height next to Hebron. On that peak, the lime-based soil is conscientiously worked. From the spring on, the vineyards, the olive trees, the fig trees, and the fruit trees make up a delightful landscape, where the various greens of the foliage tone in with the bright whiteness of the limestone banks, and the red - brown of the ground. South of Hebron, the central range descends abruptly and it ends with a string of hills decreasingly lower which disappear close to Beersheba. It rises again in The Negev along 100 km, with a height about 600 m reaching again 1000 m to the south. The most important structures in this geographic outline are the Makhteshim: the Makhtesh Ha-Gadol, the Makhtesh Ha-Qatan and the Makhtesh Ramon. These wide and oval circuses are 10 to 35 km long, and were derived from the folds originated by the opening of the Jordanian pit. The upper layers of the peaks so originated where forcibly extended and lay open to erosive agents which digged them to the point of unbaring the original rocks on bottom of those circuses and leaving on the contours a ground of broken and erect stones.


{K}- THE EASTER DEPRESSION{/}
To the east of the central range, which stretches north to south of the country, the Jordanian depression is found, followed by the Dead Sea and the Araba depression. This fracture line in the earth's crust is nothing but a ring of the deep rift which starts in Syria, runs through Al Beqa in Lebanon, continues through all Palestine, the Gulf of Eilat, the Red Sea, and dies at the Great Lakes of East Africa.

{K}THE HIGH JORDAN{/}
To the north, the bottom of the depression reaches a height of several hundred meters. The various sources of Jordan River merge gradually their waters to create the river there. In particular, the sources of Banias and Dan merge with a source located north, on the other side of the Lebanese frontier.
Time ago this region was characterized by the presence of Hula Lake, surrounded by marshes. These marshes are represented in ancient atlases, but it is useless to look for them in modern maps because here some important projects transformed the insanitary marshes into a magnificent agricultural plain, as it happened before in other places in the country. Nowadays many "kibbutzim" and "moshavim", as well as the city of Quiriat Shemona witness the profound change in the high Jordan Valley.
From there the depression appears covered by a thick layer of basalt which descends southwards. Between old Lake Hula and the side of Lake Tiberias the relief reaches 400 m. The soil is fertile here, but only after a tedious stone removal, for the fields are scattereded with volcanic rocks.

{K}THE LAKE TIBERIAS{/}
The bottom of the rift opens even more at Lake Tiberias: it forms a depression, which is filled with waters coming from the high Jordan River and from some sources spread over the banks. The remaining water flows through the lower segment of the river towards the Red Sea, in what is the lake's spillway.
While the small plains to the northwest, the Magdala and Ginosar plains are fully exploited, the northeast plain (called plain of Betsaida) is still in preparation. Both east and west banks of the lake are confined between the water and the very close cliffs; they are undergoing the soar of bananas plantations and various crops as well as pools in which fish farming is carried out.
The sulfurous thermal spring waters from Hammat-Tiberias allow the re-establishment of health resorts long time ago forgotten. Besides this, an increasing number of local and foreign tourists gather about the Lake. They enrich the existing hotels and camping resorts, which are undergoing a non-stopping growth in number.

{K}THE LOW JORDAN{/}
The narrow valley descends again southwards and maintains a constant width of about 10 km. The alluvium soils and the presence of a large number of ruins indicate the existence of an extremely ancient settlement. However, recent digs carried out at the prehistoric site of Oubeidiyeh indicate an early human presence, long before historic times, at the dawn of human adventure: 850,000 years ago!
The ruins of the Bellavista medieval castle overlook the basaltic meseta, which stretches 30 km east at the area where the Yarmuk River flows into the Jordan River, after a long running through a narrow and magnificent valley.
Once in a while, the depression temporarily hosts a tributary of the Jordan River, whose alluvial deposits have fertilized the estuary in particular at Beth-Shean and a little southern at the mouth of the wadi Farah. As we get closer to the Dead Sea, the lack of rainfalls brings the dryness to the banks: after the wadi Farah the landscape is desert land. The leafy oasis of Jericho provides some exceptions, hosting crops such as palm trees fields, ceibas and the unforgettable bouganvilleas. But this prosperity is only due to the magnanimous fountains that pour their fresh and fertile waters into the gardens

{K}THE DEAD SEA{/}
A few kilometers from Jericho, the marly and saline plain blurredly ends in the rocky walls of the Judaean desert to the west, and in the walls of the Transjordanian meseta to the east. Southwards, the Dead Sea occupies, with its mass of salty water, the main part of the rift, almost 800 m deep here. The water level is 400 m bellow the sea level. Sometimes a source provides spring water to fertilize and cultivate the modest coastal plain, as happens in A\u00efn Feskha and Engadi. Everywhere else the landscape shows a wonderful greatness, hit by a relentless sun, whose heat accumulates onto the rocky cliffs making it shine even brighter. Sometimes during the year, unexpected torrents dump their water onto the Dead Sea, flowing through the deep and torn up faults running east to west of the plain. Those waters originated in upper sites, where the soil is too dry to absorb them.
Close to the ancient fortress of Masada, the bottom of the Dead Sea rises suddenly and shows the peninsula of Lisan. The south blank is only a few meters deep, and there are extracted the plenty and various mineral products that justify the industrial facilities existing in the region.
Then begins the Araba: a large deserted valley located between The Negev and the Edom mounts. The Araba leads to the Gulf of Eilat right after a journey of 200 km.


{K}- THE CLIMATE{/}
With the characteristics due to its relief, Palestine enjoys subtropical climate. There are only two seasons here: the summer lasting May through October, and the winter lasting November through April. Only winter brings rains with varying rates up to the region. Both winter's and summer's ends are characterized by warm winds coming from the desert lands, which affect mainly the east and the southern parts of the country.
The climate in the coastal plain is Mediterranean: warm and humid in the summer and mild in the winter. The proximity of the Mediterranean Sea diminishes the temperature change from day to night.
The rainfall rates reach 500 mm per year in the north and the middle of the country, and remain lower to the south. The temperature does not exceed 28\u00b0C during the summer and rarely falls below 11\u00b0C during winter.
The weather is harsher at the central range: temperature drops 7\u00ba lower than in the coast and the peaks remain covered by snow for winter. However, during the summer the temperature reaches easily 30\u00baC, although nights are colder. Showers are frequent and rainfall rates vary between 700 and 900 mm per year. The western slope benefits from marine rainfalls more than the eastern slope.
The eastern depression is the warmest region in Palestine. Temperatures there rise above 40\u00baC during summer in the area of the Dead Sea. Very often, rainfalls are brief but frequently severe, and then the "uedes" shower impressive amounts of water cutting communications for hours.
Since rains are infrequent in the Negev, the climate there is dry for the whole year and it is the typical steppe climate. The winter is not cold, but during the summer the temperature can reach 40\u00ba in the eastern depression.


{N}GEOLOGY{/}

{K}A QUICK LOOK AT THE FORMATION OF PALESTINE{/}
At the end of Secondary age, during the end of the Cretaceous period, little more than a hundred million years ago, the Sea of Tetis still covered Palestine completely. Following the usual {C}lithogenous{/} process (formation of the rocks), the sediments were taken by erosive agents from the relief already emerged in the surrounding regions. Then, they settled on the bottom of the sea subsequently undergoing the combined action of chemical agents dissolved in the water and the pressure from new sediment layers. The results of this transformation are the various types of limestone, which now compose the main materials of the central range. These types of limestone are cenomanian and turonian (which sometimes have turned into dolomitic for their high content in magnesium carbon) and santonian, all mixed with soft clay.
During the Tertiary era (which began 70 million years ago) the gradual withdrawal of the sea revealed the sunken relief. At the end of Tertiary era, during the Pliocene period (which began 11 million years ago) the seaside lay at the foothill of the mounts which today compose the east boundary of the coastal plain. Since then, the coastal plain was formed from the gathering of sands carried by the Nile and from sediments taken from the emerged relief.
At the end of Pliocene period, and during the Pleistocene period (which began one million years ago), the genesis of the large rift brought transformations in the orography, and the current outline of the coastal plain was reached as recently as a few millenniums before our era. 

{K}A QUICK LOOK AT THE FORMATION OF JORDANIAN DEPRESSION{/}
In accordance with the "Theory of the Plates", the top layer of the earth's crust consists of a set of plates staying on a viscous crust. For the problem at hand, we need to consider three of those plates. The Eurasian one (which covers all of Europe and Asia except India), the African one (which extends widely eastwards and westwards from the current African continent), and the Arabic one (much smaller, and clamped between the two formerly mentioned). The African plate slides southwards and parallel to the Arabic one, which translates northwards. This relative displacement generates what is called a "transformer fault". This phenomenon started about 3 million years ago.
Three hundred thousand years before, an important basaltic casting had filled a previously existing valley. However, the earth's crust movement brought the Jordanian depression, and created a succession of several lakes with spring water which placed marl layers more that 50 meter deep. The rises and falls of the level of these lakes are related to alternating periods of moisture and dryness, which correspond approximately with glaciation and inter - glaciation periods known over Europe during the Quaternary age. However, these two phenomena have not been proven to have a reliable relation so far.
About 600,000 years ago, new lava castings, reaching 10 meters thick in some points, extended all over the depression and covered the former lake - originated marls.
A late saline lake happened to occupy completely the fault from the north of Tiberias Lake through the south of the Dead Sea. This happened 60,000 years ago. However, the dry climate over the region during the recent Mousterian period (approximately 50,000 years ago). originated a gradual withdrawal of the lake, leaving behind many sediments of marl, gypsum, and salt, all over a thickness of 40 m. As the lake dried southwards, the Jordan River stretched its course through the emerged marls. The current configuration of the valley and the Dead Sea which is formed with the remaining saline waters, was fixed only 20,000 years ago.


{N}A LOOK AT THE ARCHAEOLOGY{/}

Every pilgrim turning to the Holy Land or traveler covering the Mediterranean basin learns how much the archaeological excavations have enriched our knowledge about the past. Many ancient cities were no more than a name in an atlas or a history book and now are gradually recovering their appearance. Here and there are found city walls or door foundations, and close to those can also be found the basement of a temple or palace. Inside the site's museum we can see statues or ceramic vessels dated and correlated with a certain event which determined the city's history. We are not simply visiting a set of stones, but the history of a people, which is revealed thanks to those remains patiently exhumed and interpreted by the archaeologists. This interdisciplinary science has in the Holy Land a history more than a hundred years old.

{K}THE PIONEERS{/}
A hundred and fifty years ago, Edward Robinson and Eli Smith devoted themselves to identify and look for the biblical sites in Palestine. Their patient research and inquiries throughout the Arab inhabitants of the country in those days led to the writing of some lists, still of high interest in our days. In a first approach it looks surprising that the old sites kept their original names through the centuries and sometimes though the millenniums. However, this phenomenon is not that surprising, considering the country has been inhabited by Semitic settlers since remote times.
In 1865 was created the Palestine Exploration Fund, and the British captain Charles Warren was in charge of the excavation's initiation in Jerusalem. Although this young captain's methods might look hilarious, they reveal his willpower and the desire of the Society that hired him to update the remains of the past.

{K}FLINDERS PETRIE (1853 - 1942){/}
At the end of XIX century, Flinders Petrie worked in the tell of El-Hesi for the Palestine Exploration Fund; a double instinct led him to be the father of the Palestinian archaeology. With a single stroke, he revealed both the interest of opening a "stratigraphical ditch" and the importance of pottery as a means for dating the various archaeological layers found. His instinct was decisive for the future. Extremely simplified, a tell can be described as a superposition of cities, each of them built over the ruins of the former one. Thus, it can be very well concluded that a vertical ditch open in the flank of a tell will reveal the stacked remains of the different cities that were succeeding to each other.
Regarding the pottery industry, about 2,000 years older than the first metallurgy, Flinders Petrie felt that it varied from period to period and region to region, and thus allowed the identification and dating of the various layers from which it was picked up. Nevertheless, reality was much more complex. The time spacing between the rise of a city over another could vary, an old building's foundations could have been used to start a new one; very often it was found that new builders had used old stones previously worked. Regarding the pottery, foreign cultural influences could have affected a local craftsman, ending up in composite and abnormal shapes. The commercial activities and population movements had indeed taken some pottery pieces very far away from their original place. Therefore, it was a duty for XX century's archaeologists to confirm and specify Flinders Petrie's assumptions.

{K}A MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH{/}
Nowadays the "ceramics" are very closely studied and under several standpoints. The manufacturing (mineral composition, preparation, work and oven procedures), the shape and decoration of the object (profile, decoration methods, materials used, graphic style), are parallel elements that allow the specialist  to date the pottery, to determine its geographical origin and sometimes to find out its usage.
Other analysis criteria are based on the architecture. For instance, materials used, stones sculpture, structures layout, manufacture of ornamental components\u0085 In addition to this, it should not be forgotten the epigraphy (the study of ancient inscriptions and documents) and the numismatic (the study of the coins and currency) of more recent periods. The collection of data provided by the various disciplines is complemented with the results from the renowned "carbon - 14" dating method, applicable on soils as well as human, vegetable, or animal remains.

{K}THE "CARBON - 14" DATING METHOD{/}
This dating procedure was set up in 1947 by the American chemist Willard Frank Libby upon his discovery of this carbon's isotope formation process that takes place in the atmosphere. After penetrating the atmosphere, the galaxy-originated protons generate neutrons, which adhere to oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the first place. Afterwards they take part in the formation of carbon-14 in the atmospheric mixture. In the superior vegetation, the chlorophylous cells retain atmospheric carbon gas, which contains a small but measurable amount of carbon-14 (0.00000000012%). Because of having fourteen neutrons around the typical six protons, carbon-14 can be distinguished from carbon-12 (the main type existing in the atmosphere, 98.89%) and from carbon-13 (existing in a rate of 1.108%).
This carbon isotope is radioactive. It keeps a constant radioactivity in the chlorophylous vegetation as long as they live, due to a cycle of formation and disintegration. However, as soon as they die, radioactivity decreases and splits in half every 5,568 years. The moment of death in vegetation can be determined by the in-lab measurement of radioactivity loss of the carbon found in their chlorophylous cells. Animals are not capable to assimilate carbon, however vegetables are the feeding resource of herbivores and the non-assimilated carbon is fixed to their bones, under the form of lime, where it can be analyzed.
Processes are normally more complex in reality, however, and taking into account certain parameters better known presently, a reasonably accurate dating can be obtained even for the non-vegetation living beings, always that and as long as the remains are not older than 40,000 years.
Right after the Second World War, in 1952, one of the biggest names in the Palestinian archaeology was bound to achive an important breakthrough on the work methods: Miss Kathleen Kenyon applied in Jericho an excavation procedure set up by Mortimer Wheeler eight years before. After a topographic mapping and the staking out of the work area, the ground is cut in 4 meters wide squares, each square with side ramps one meter wide. Every square is exhaustively explored, and the remains found in there are carefully labeled (pieces of pottery, coins, building components...). Regardless of many improvements derived from the practical usage, this procedure is still presently the main frame for archaeological works.
