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Tel Gezer: The ancient water plant in the heart of the earth was opened to the public - Walla! Tourism

2021-12-01T07:05:56.268Z


3,600 years ago, during the Canaanite period, the inhabitants of the city of Gezer in the lowlands dug a huge waterworks, which was closed. A special staircase has now been installed that allows you to go down to its depth. The details in Walla! Tourism


Tel Gezer: The ancient waterworks in the heart of the earth was opened to the public

3,600 years ago, during the Canaanite period, the inhabitants of the city of Gezer in the lowlands dug a huge water plant at a depth of 60 meters.

It has been closed for years, but recently a special staircase has been installed that allows visitors to go down deep and free of charge

Ziv Reinstein

01/12/2021

Wednesday, 01 December 2021, 08:24 Updated: 08:58

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The ancient waterworks in Tel Gezer National Park opens (Photo: Yaniv Cohen, RTG)

The largest Canaanite water plant ever unveiled in the world, at Tel Gezer, was opened to the public free of charge, with a special staircase that allows visitors to descend into its depths.



Tel Gezer National Park preserves one of the most important biblical sites in the country.

In the tell, which is 230 meters above sea level and rises to a height of 90 meters above its surroundings, more than 25 settlement layers were found from the Chalcolithic period (4,000 years BC to the Roman period (100 AD).



Before 3,600 in the Canaanite period, an ancient waterworks was built on the tell 60 meters in the ground, which was used by the city's ancient inhabitants during peacetime and siege. The plant was first discovered by Irish archaeologist Robert McAllister in the early 20th century. Meters from the top of the mound, there is a small pool with groundwater.

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Settlement from 4000 years ago.

Tel Gezer (Photo: Nature and Parks Authority, Yaniv Cohen)

At a depth of 60 meters.

The ancient water plant opened to the public in Tel Gezer (Photo: Nature and Parks Authority, Yaniv Cohen)

The staircase has been laid and allows visitors to descend (Photo: Nature and Parks Authority, Yaniv Cohen)

Walk near groundwater level

The Nature and Parks Authority and the Carrot Regional Council recently inaugurated in a solemn ceremony the opening to the public of the ancient water plant. The ceremony was attended by Shaul Goldstein, Director General of the Nature and Parks Authority, Rotem Yadlin, Head of the Gezer Regional Council, MK Zvika Hauser, initiator of the National Heritage Program, senior officials and other partners who took part in site development and archeological excavations at the national park.



The opening of the ancient water plant to the traveling public is made possible thanks to development work worth millions of shekels, which has been carried out in the national park in recent years. The staircase, which is about 60 meters long, leads experientially to the depth of the water plant, near the groundwater level.



The Canaanite water system excavation was resumed after many years in 2010, by a joint delegation of the Nature and Parks Authority led by its former chief archaeologist Dr. Zvika Tzuk together with the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary led by Dr. Jim Parker, under the auspices of the Antiquities Authority.

This excavation spanned 9 excavation seasons, until 2018. In this excavation, about two-thirds of the waterworks that were blocked after excavations from Calister were cleared and an ancient level that has not yet been excavated was revealed, including archeological finds including Ashtoreth figurines.



During this round of excavations, a rare cache of silver and gold objects was discovered, which was placed in a pottery vessel with a lid wrapped in a cloth whose imprint still remains on some of the finds.

The treasure was discovered in the foundations of a room and belongs to the Canaanite period (Middle Bronze Age) 2b, about 3600 years ago.

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A copy of a carrot tablet, with one of the earliest Hebrew inscriptions on it (Photo: Nature and Parks Authority, Yaniv Cohen)

A scarab found as part of the Tel Gezer cache (Photo: Walla! NEWS system, Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority)

Cutting the film at the ancient waterworks in Tel Gezer National Park (Photo: Nature and Parks Authority, Yaniv Cohen)

"Carrot tablet" - one of the earliest Hebrew inscriptions

Among the impressive buildings and remains found at Tel Gezer: the city walls, the mighty tower, the tombstone temple and the ancient waterworks - all from the Canaanite period.

Israelite period have been discovered on the site cover a whole "and tabula carrot" famous - one of the earliest Hebrew inscription. Most of the remains are from the Canaanite period to the Middle and Late Israelite period, periods in which the sentence was a major city and important dominated the intersection zones.



Visit the national park of Tel Gezer, located Near the settlement of Carmei Yosef, it is free of charge and offers travelers a circular path 1.5 km long around the main points of interest, including views of the entire area.

When descending to the water plant, it is mandatory to use a powerful flashlight beyond the existing one in a smartphone device.

The instructions for the trip in the national park must be followed, as shown on the signs on the website.

This is what the water plant looked like in 2013, during excavation work by the Nature and Parks Authority (Photo: Walla! NEWS system, Nature and Parks Authority)

The water plant was closed to visitors.

Now it will be possible to go into depth as well (Photo: Photo: Eyal Shapira)

According to Shaul Goldstein, CEO of NPA: "The opening of the waterworks National Park Tel Gezer provides travelers a fascinating insight and experience especially one at the ancient water most impressive in Israel and heritages of the ancient city of Tel Gezer national park guard."



According to Rotem Yadlin, head of a council Regional Carrot: “Knowing that families, parents and children will now be able to come and see up close the power of the place through which our forefathers walked excites me time and time again.

We will continue our shared dream of becoming the 'National Park Tel Gezer source of inspiration for future generations. "



The work to open the waterworks public led to the NPA together with the Gezer Regional Council with the assistance of other organizations including Department of Heritage at the Ministry of Heritage and Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Nesher.

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Source: walla

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