The National Park of Tel Arad

Usually the value of ancient sites is determined by the number of historical layers. In Israel, many archaeological parks, which contain up to 20 layers, but the special interest of tourists is the ancient city of Tel Arad, which has only two historical layers. Surprisingly, not only ruins are preserved here, but two interesting architectural compositions that represent vivid illustrations of two ancient epochs: the Canaanite period and the reign of King Solomon.

The Lower Town of Tel Arad

The first settlements in the western part of the Negev desert began to appear about 4000 years ago BC, but, unfortunately, no artifacts of those times survived. Traces of the ancient Canaanites refer to the Bronze Age. The entire Lower City occupies an area of ​​about 10 hectares. The place for its foundation was not chosen by chance. Through ancient Arad there is a path from Mesopotamia to Egypt.

Scientists are still wondering how carefully the construction of this settlement was in the desert. The city was surrounded by a massive stone wall with tall round towers. Inside the perimeter were residential buildings, which had the same practical layout. In the center of the house stood a large pillar, which served as a support for a direct roof, the room inside was one, no matter what the total area, along the walls were placed wide benches. Also in Canaan, Tel Arad there were public buildings, a small palace and temples. In the lowest part of the city there was a public reservoir, where rainwater drained from all the streets.

Items found in the ancient Lower City, indicate that the standard of living here was quite high. Most of the population was engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, active trade with the Egyptians was conducted. Until now, scientists are lost in conjecture, which could encourage residents of a well-developed, highly developed settlement to collect their belongings and left the house overnight. After the Canaan Tel-Arad, which existed from 3000 to 2650 BC, no one destroyed or robbed, it was simply abandoned, which allowed to preserve so many architectural monuments of that time.

Upper town of Tel Arad

The lands in the west of the Negev were empty about 1500 years, until the Jews began to settle here. For the construction of a new city, they chose a small hill, located over an abandoned Canaanite village.

During the reign of King Solomon, a mighty fortress was erected, which was built using the then popular casemate technology (the walls were made double, and the space between them was filled with earth or stones, thus giving increased stability and durability).

In addition to the remnants of the ancient fortress, fragments of houses, warehouses and a city reservoir cut down in a large rock were preserved.

Upper Tel-Arad is the only settlement in the former Jewish kingdom where a sanctuary was discovered. As well as the great Jerusalem, the Tel-Aradic temple was located clearly along the axis "east-west". Similar was the placement of the main zones - before the entrance there is a large courtyard with an altar, then - a room for worship with benches and at the very end - an altar with stone slabs that served as a place of sacrifice, and pillars for burning incense and incense. It was discovered during excavations that the temple in Tel Arad was not used for long, it was covered with earth back in those distant times. Most likely the king of Judea learned that somewhere in addition to the Temple of Jerusalem sacrificial sacrifices are brought and ordered to close the sanctuary.

On the territory of the Upper Town, many interesting artifacts were found that helped to recreate whole pictures from the life of ancient Tel-Arad. Among them:

All this proves that the Upper city of Tel Arad was an important strategic fortress, as well as a military-administrative center. After the destruction of the First Temple, it was used by the Persians, then by the Hellenes and the Romans. The fortress was then destroyed, then restored again. Its last flourishing is during the Islamic period. After that, Tel-Arad was in complete desolation, and only with the beginning of the Negev desert development by the Israelis in the middle of the twentieth century the ancient city was again spoken, but already in the foreshortening of the historical heritage of the country.

Tourists here are attracted not only by rich archaeological expositions in the open air. Around the ancient city of beautiful landscapes. Especially here it is beautiful in spring, when the slopes are covered with a bright green carpet. And in this part of the desert grow amazing flowers - black irises.

Information for tourists

How to get there?

You can reach the Tel-Arad National Park by car or by excursion bus. Public transport does not go here.

If you are traveling by car, follow the route number 31, which connects the intersections of Lahavim (Highway No. 40) and Zohar (Highway No. 90). Carefully follow the signs, at the intersection Arad will have to be turned to the road No. 2808, which will take you to the park.