Where The Golan’s Rivers Flow Into The Sea Of Galilee

The Majrase Nature Reserve is one of hundreds of national parks and reserves ideal for visiting in the summer heat. Here’s a look at just half a dozen of them.

When Mohammed’s disciples were sent into the world to spread the Prophet’s message, they often met at the eastern crossroads known as Horshat Tal. According to legend, on one occasion 10 disciples stopped at Horshat Tal on their way from Mecca to Syria, and tied their horses to stakes they had brought with them from Mount Tavor (Tabor). The next day the sticks took root and began to blossom, eventually to create the magnificent Tavor oak forest that provides today’s Horshat Tal National Park with much of its wondrous beauty.

The park’s setting east of Kiryat Shmona, between the Galilean mountains and the Golan Heights, is truly breathtaking and provides a view of the Mount Hermon range. Within the park are 3 1/2 kilometers (2 miles) of sweet flowing water from the Dan River and splendidly well-kept and shaded lawns. Grounds have been leveled so that the entire park is accessible by wheelchair, stroller and walker.
Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it?

Yet back in 1959, a fierce battle raged between those forces who wanted to develop the area and others who insisted to preserve it in its natural state. In the end, Horshat Tal’s fate was decided by Joseph Weitz, at the time director of Land and Forestry for the Jewish National Fund. Drawing a line in the ground with his cane, he decreed that everything to its north would become a national park; the area south of the line, a nature reserve.

 

Read the full article over at The Times of Israel