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Daughters of Jacob Bridge

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Daughters of Jacob Bridge
גשר בנות יעקב
جسر بنات يعقوب
The modern concrete bridge in 2016
The modern concrete bridge in 2016
Coordinates 33°0′37.02″N 35°37′41.83″E / 33.0102833°N 35.6282861°E
Crosses Jordan River
Locale Northern District, Israel
Golan Heights
Named for Jacob
History
Opened 2007
Location
Location of the Daughters of Jacob Bridge in northern Israel and the Golan Heights

The Daughters of Jacob Bridge (Hebrew: גשר בנות יעקב, romanized: Gesher Bnot Ya'akov, Arabic: جسر بنات يعقوب, romanized: Jisr Benat Ya'kub)[1] is a bridge that spans the last natural ford of the Jordan River between the Korazim Plateau in northern Israel and the Golan Heights.

Within the vicinity of the bridge is the location of a well known Paleolithic archaeological site with Acheulean artifacts dated to around 780,000 years ago. The area has been used as a crossing point for thousands of years; it was part of the recently dubbed Via Maris, and was strategically important to the Ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Hittites, Jews, Saracens (early Muslims), Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, and to modern inhabitants and armies who crossed the river at this place.

The site was named Jacob's Ford (Latin: Vadum Iacob) by Europeans during the Crusades. A stone bridge was built by the Mamluks sometime in the 13th century, who called it Jisr Ya'kub (lit. 'Jacob's Bridge'). Located southwest of the medieval bridge are the remains of a crusader castle known as Chastelet and east of the bridge are the remains of a Mamluk khan (caravanserai). The old arched stone bridge marked the northernmost limit of Napoleon's campaign in Syria,[2][3] and was the site of the Battle of Jisr Benat Yakub during World War I.

The medieval bridge was replaced in 1934 by a modern bridge further south during the draining of Lake Hula.[4] The current bridge in civilian use was constructed in 2007 and now forms part of Israeli Highway 91, straddling the boundary between the Galilee and the Golan Heights. It is of strategic military significance as it is one of the few fixed crossing points over the upper Jordan River that enable access from the Golan Heights to the Upper Galilee.

Etymology

The place was first associated with the biblical forefather of the Jews, Jacob, due to a confusion. The Crusader-era nunnery of Saint James (Saint Jacques in French), from the nearby castellany of Sephet (modern-day Safed), received part of the customs paid at the ford, and since Jacques is derived from Jacob, this led to the name Jacob's Ford.[5]

History and archaeology of the ford site

Prehistory

Archaeological excavations at the prehistoric Gesher Benot Ya'aqov site have revealed evidence of human habitation in the area, from as early as 750,000 years ago.[6] Archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem claim that the site provides evidence of "advanced human behavior" half a million years earlier than has previously been estimated as possible. Their report describes a layer at the site belonging to the Acheulian (a culture dating to the Lower Palaeolithic, at the very beginning of the Stone Age), where numerous stone tools, animal bones and plant remains have been found, including those of the large elephant Palaeoloxodon recki[7] which is associated with stone tools, including a handaxe, and shows cut and fracture marks indicating that it was butchered by archaic humans.[8] According to the archaeologists Paul Pettitt and Mark White, the site has produced the earliest widely accepted evidence for the use of fire, dated approximately 790,000 years ago.[9]

A Tel-Aviv University study found remains of a huge carp fish cooked with the use of fire at the site 780,000 years ago.[10] A 2026 study argued that the plant remains at the site include the oldest known evidence of medicinal plant use by humans, predating previous estimates by more than 700,000 years.[11]

Crusader and Ayyubid period

Jacob's Ford was a key river crossing point and major trade route between Acre and Damascus.[12] It was utilized by Christian Palestine and Seljuk Syria as a major intersection between the two civilizations, making it strategically important. When Humphrey II of Toron was besieged in the city of Banyas in 1157, King Baldwin III of Jerusalem was able to break the siege, only to be ambushed at Jacob's Ford in June of that year.[13]

Later in the twelfth century, Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Saladin continually contested the area around Jacob's Ford. Baldwin allowed the Templars to build Chastelet castle overlooking Jacob's Ford known to the Arabs as Qasr al-'Ata[14] commanding the road from Quneitra to Tiberias.[15] On 23 August 1179, Saladin successfully conducted the siege of Jacob's Ford, destroying the unfinished fortification, known as the castle of Vadum Iacob or Chastellet.

Mamluk and Ottoman bridge

In the late Mamluk period, Sefad became a principal town and Baibars' postal road from Cairo to Damascus was extended with a branch that went through the north of Palestine. To accomplish this, the bridge was built over the Crusaders' Vadum Jacob (Jacob's ford). The bridge had the Mamluk characteristic dual-slope pathway like the Yibna Bridge. Al-Dimashqi (1256–1327) noted that "the Jordan traverses the district of Al Khaitah and comes to the Jisr Ya'kub (lit. "Jacob's Bridge"), under Kasr Ya'kub (lit. "Jacob's Castle"), and reaching the Sea of Tiberias, falls into it."[16]

Before 1444, a merchant constructed a khan (caravanserai) on the eastern side of the bridge, one of a series of such khans built at the time.[17] Edward Robinson noted that during the 14th century, travellers crossed the river Jordan below the Lake of Tiberias, while the first crossing in the area of Jisr Benat Yakob was noted in 1450 CE. The khan, at the eastern end of the bridge, and the bridge itself, were both probably built before 1450, according to Robinson.[18]

For the year 1555−1556 CE (AH 963) the toll post at the bridge collected 25,000 akçe,[17] and in 1577 (985 H) a firman commanded that the place had post horses ready.[17]

On June 4, 1771, a combined force of Daher al-Umar's men and mamluk commander Abu al-Dhahab met the Damascene Pasha in battle, The result was a victory for the Zayadina coalition and established control of Irbid and Quneitra to Daher al Umar. This also set in motion the later Final Invasion of Damascus Eyalet & Siege of Damascus by Abu al-Dhahab[19]

The bridge was maintained through the Ottoman period, with a caravanserai on one end of the bridge, as shown in the 1799 Jacotin map.[20] During the Egyptian campaign of 1799, Napoleon sent his cavalry commander, general Murat, to defend the bridge, as a measure of preempting reinforcement from Damascus being sent to Akko during the siege laid by the French.[21] Murat occupied nearby Safed and Tiberias, as well as the bridge[22] and, by relying on the superior quality of French troops, managed to defeat Turkish units far outnumbering him.[23] Jacotin's map marks the west side of the bridge with the name of General Murat and the date of 2 April 1799.

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) also noted about Jisr Benat Yakub: "The bridge itself appears to be of later date than the Crusader period."[24]

20th century

The Battle of Jisr Benat Yakub was fought there on 27 September 1918 during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I, at the beginning of the pursuit by the British Army of the retreating remnants of the Ottoman Yildirim Army Group towards Damascus, who destroyed the central arch of the bridge. The bridge was shortly repaired by ANZAC sappers, flattening the original dual-slope pathway, making it useful for modern vehicles.

In 1934, during the draining of Lake Hula as part of a Zionist land reclamation project, the old bridge was replaced by a modern one further south.[4]

On the "Night of the Bridges" between 16 and 17 June 1946, the bridge was again destroyed by the Jewish Haganah. The Syrians captured the bridge on June 11, 1948, during the 1948 Palestine war, but later withdrew as a result of the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and Syria. After the war, the bridge was in the central demilitarised zone established by the armistice agreement.

In 1953, the site was chosen as the original location for the water intake of the National Water Carrier of Israel, but after US pressure, the intake was moved downstream to the Sea of Galilee at Eshed Kinrot,[25] which later became known as the Sapir Pumping Station at Tel Kinrot/Tell el-'Oreimeh.

During the Six-Day War, an Israeli paratrooper brigade captured the area, and after the war, the Israeli Combat Engineering Corps constructed a Bailey bridge. In the Yom Kippur War, Syrian forces approached the vicinity of the bridge. As a precaution, Israeli sappers placed explosives on the bridge but did not detonate them as the Syrians did not attempt to cross it.[26]

21st century

In 2007, one of the two Bailey bridges at the site (one for traffic from east to west and the other handling traffic in the opposite direction) was replaced with a modern concrete span, while the other Bailey bridge was left intact for emergency use.

See also

References

  1. Back to citation Sharon, 1999, p. 41
  2. Back to citation Preston, 1921, p. 261
  3. Back to citation Jill, Duchess of Hamilton (2002). First to Damascus: the great ride and Lawrence of Arabia. Roseville: Kangaroo Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-7318-1071-0. OCLC 248935397.
  4. Back to citation occurrence 4.0 Back to citation occurrence 4.1 Sufian, 2008, pp. 165 ff
  5. Back to citation Jacob's Ford by Metzad Ateret, Israel and You (blog), accessed 27 April 2020
  6. Back to citation Evidence found of early modern humans (January 5, 2010) in Israel 21c Innovation News Service Retrieved 2010-01-05
  7. Back to citation Larramendi, Asier; Zhang, Hanwen; Palombo, Maria Rita; Ferretti, Marco P. (February 2020). "The evolution of Palaeoloxodon skull structure: Disentangling phylogenetic, sexually dimorphic, ontogenetic, and allometric morphological signals". Quaternary Science Reviews. 229 106090. Bibcode:2020QSRv.22906090L. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.106090. S2CID 213676377.
  8. Back to citation Haynes, Gary (March 2022). "Late Quaternary Proboscidean Sites in Africa and Eurasia with Possible or Probable Evidence for Hominin Involvement". Quaternary. 5 (1): 18. Bibcode:2022Quat....5...18H. doi:10.3390/quat5010018. ISSN 2571-550X.
  9. Back to citation Pettitt and White, 2012, p. 194; Wilford, John Noble (22 December 2009). "Excavation Sites Show Distinct Living Areas Early in Stone Age". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 October 2021; "Gesher Benot Ya'aqov - Lower Paleolithic Site in Israel". Archived from the original on 2014-04-29. Retrieved 2015-05-04.
  10. Back to citation Zohar, Irit; Alperson-Afil, Nira; Goren-Inbar, Naama; Prévost, Marion; Tütken, Thomas; Sisma-Ventura, Guy; Hershkovitz, Israel; Najorka, Jens (14 November 2022). "Evidence for the cooking of fish 780,000 years ago at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 6 (12): 2016–2028. Bibcode:2022NatEE...6.2016Z. doi:10.1038/s41559-022-01910-z. PMID 36376603. S2CID 253522354.
  11. Back to citation Jopling, David A. (2026). "Paleo-medicine at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov". Evolution and Human Behavior. 47 (2) 106807. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106807.
  12. Back to citation Murray, 2006, p. 649
  13. Back to citation Richard, 1999, pp. 175-176
  14. Back to citation Pringle, 1997, pg. 85
  15. Back to citation Payne, 1998, p. 188
  16. Back to citation Le Strange, 1890, p. 53
  17. Back to citation occurrence 17.0 Back to citation occurrence 17.1 Back to citation occurrence 17.2 Petersen, 1991, pp. 182−183
  18. Back to citation Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, pp. 361−363
  19. Back to citation Revolt in Palestine in the Eighteenth Century.
  20. Back to citation Karmon, 1960, pp. 250−252 Archived 2019-12-22 at the Wayback Machine
  21. Back to citation Stephane Cohen (6 February 2018). "The parable of Tel Hazor". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  22. Back to citation Amson, Daniel (1992). Israël et Palestine: Territoires sans frontières (PDF). Politique d'aujourd'hui (in French). Presses Universitaires de France (Réédition Numérique Fenixx). p. 9. ISBN 978-2-13-045027-6. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  23. Back to citation Bonaparte in Egypt and Syria, 1798-1799: A Counter Stroke Stopped, Napoleonics blog, accessed 27 April 2020
  24. Back to citation Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, 217
  25. Back to citation Sosland, 2007, p. 70
  26. Back to citation Abraham Rabinovich (2004). The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter That Transformed The Middle East. New York: Schocken Books. p. 175. ISBN 0-8052-4176-0.
  27. Back to citation Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, vol 2, pp. 77 ff.

Bibliography

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