The World’s Population

 

 

When A Lot of Rain is a Good Thing

Ferrell Jenkins has some good news on and for Israel:

Having watched the rise and fall of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) over a period of 45 years, it is exciting to learn that winter storms have pushed the lake to the sharpest December rise in 20 years.

According to an article in Haaretz the lake “is expected to have risen 26 centimeters [9.84"] since heavy rains began Thursday, it sharpest December rise in 20 years. [1991 and 1992]“

As a result of the increased flow in northern streams, the Kinneret’s water level rose sharply, reaching 212.07 meters [695.77 feet] below sea level Saturday morning.

And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. (Matthew 14:34 ESV)

Rain also fell as far south as Ashdod and Kiryat Gat, “but failed to affect the Negev this time.” This reminds us of the days of the Patriarchs whose lives were often disrupted by lack of rain in the Negev.

According to the report, almost 20 inches of snow has fallen on Mount Hermon.

If you have an interest in weather conditions in Israel, I suggest Kinneret Bot and the site of the Israel Meterological Service.

Geographer Carl Rasmussen says,

All of us who have traveled in Israel and the surrounding countries are well-aware of the importance of the winter rains for the well-being of the inhabitants of the area, local agriculture, and the water supply in general.

 

The True Size of Africa

Perhaps Africa is far bigger than you realised?

 

Rare 19th Century Map of Jerusalem Discovered in Berlin Archive

The map, sketched by a German tourist in 1823, is considered to be the second modern map of the city; ‘It replicates the boundaries and key structures with precision,’ says Israeli historical geographer.

Haaretz.com reports:

A map of Jerusalem that was drafted some 190 years ago by a German tourist was recently unearthed by two researchers – one Israeli, the other German – in an archive in Berlin. The map, sketched by hand in 1823, was discovered in the course of a study conducted in tandem by Israeli researchers and scholars at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, in Leipzig, Germany.

The study, funded by the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development, is intended to conduct a profound reappraisal of the cartography of 19th-century Palestine between the years 1830-1880.

The rediscovered map is highly significant. “It was sketched by hand by a German tourist named Westphal, who arrived in Jerusalem for a visit in 1823,” Prof. Chaim Goren, a historical geographer at the Tel Hai Academic College, told Haaretz. Goren is conducting the study together with Prof. Rehav Rubin of the Hebrew University and scholars from the German institute, including Dr. Bruno Schelhaas.

“We know that additional maps were subsequently drafted on the basis of this one and that numerous research studies of the history of Jerusalem, conducted by scholars all over the world, relied on them,” explains Goren.

Maps are an important basis for every research study, Goren notes. In the history of the cartography of Israel, the mapping of Jerusalem holds a special place, given the city’s holiness and meaning to the three major monotheistic religions. “The development of cartography began with imaginary maps that showed the city in the mind’s eye and perspective of the mapmaker. Later, these maps became realistic maps, which are based mainly on compilation – the compiling of material from various sources, such as textual accounts, graphic depictions and so on,” he says.

The more advanced stage is represented by the survey maps, which rely on the execution of measurements by means of various devices. In the 19th century, these devices were primitive and very simple, but during the 20th century they became more sophisticated. It was not until the end of the second decade of the 19th century that the scientific mapping of Jerusalem began. It was based on exact geographic and topographic data, and on trigonometric calculations and measurements.

“The first survey map of Jerusalem known to scholars was drafted in 1818 by the physician and naturalist Franz Wilhelm Sieber. Prof. Yehoshua Ben-Arieh was among the first scholars to write about these maps,” says Goren.

Aside from this initial map, scholars were aware of another map that was sketched in 1823, according to which later maps were drawn. However, the 1823 map has only now come to light.

In the framework of the current research project, Goren met several months ago with Schelhaas at the map archive of the University of Berlin, where hundreds of thousands of maps have only recently been catalogued.

“It took quite a few years to consolidate and catalogue the two map collections, one of which had been in eastern Berlin and the other at the university in western Berlin,” says Goren. “We sat for weeks on end and studied all of the maps that might have been related to Palestine in general and to Jerusalem specifically, when suddenly we found six sketches done by this same Westphal, drafted in his handwriting. They included the Old City, its division into quarters, the important structures, holy sites, etc.”

“When you’re sitting in an archive, you just pounce on things like this. You’re looking at thousands of items, and you have to be patient and have to love what you’re doing. In the end, the 1001st item gives you what you were looking for.”

The map is drafted on A5 greaseproof paper. It correctly and precisely reflects the boundaries of the city, the correct outline of the city’s walls and the location of the key structures,” says Goren. “This map constitutes a very important – and until now, unknown – stage in the history of cartographic research of Jerusalem,” he concludes.

HT

 

8 Amazing Drowned Churches

The World of Geography:

Check them out here.

HT

 

The Dead Sea is Dying

The Telegraph:

If you keep a sharp eye open as you drive the world’s lowest road, along the Israeli side of the Dead Sea, you may spot a short black line painted on a cliff face some feet above your head. It was made a century ago by British geographers, floating on a boat on the sea’s surface, to mark its level at the time.

But if you then turn, as I did this week, to look for the present-day sea, you’ll only spot it far beneath you, at the bottom of another cliff. For its level has since fallen by more than 80 feet, mainly over the past few decades.

At the same time the sea more here.

 

The Best Maps of Israel

On the Bible Places blog:

The best maps for detailed work in historical geography of Israel are the 1:50,000 series published by the Survey of Israel and the Survey of Western Palestine maps produced in the 1880s by the Palestine Exploration Fund. The first set comprises 20 maps and the second 16 (only going as far south as Beersheba), indicating the level of detail involved. Maps in the first set cost about $20 each and the second set costs in the thousands of dollars in the rare event that one comes on the market. In order to gain access to the Survey of Western Palestine, when one went on the market for sale in Germany some years ago, we purchased it and “shared the cost” by making an electronic version available.

An excellent new resource is available that combines the two maps in a single (free) website entitled amud anan (“pillar of cloud”). You can navigate on either map and then toggle to the other to see the land 130 years earlier (or later). The differences are dramatic. In addition, a “3D” option overlaps the maps on Google Earth topography so that the hills and valleys look like hills and valleys.

The 1:50,000 maps are in Hebrew. If you need to use detailed maps of Israel, and you don’t think you need to know Hebrew for anything else, these maps provide sufficient justification to learn the alphabet. (It really doesn’t take that long; there are only 22 letters and everything is phonetic.)

With a a tablet and a good internet connection (or with purchase of the iPad app; Android coming), hiking in Israel may never be the same!

Northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Survey of Western Palestine sheet 6

The Geopolitics of Israel: Biblical and Modern

On the Bible Places blog:

Strafor Global Intelligence has an interesting analysis of how Israel’s geographical realities have affected its political situation in biblical times as well as today. It’s an interesting read. The article begins:

The founding principle of geopolitics is that place — geography — plays a significant role in determining how nations will behave. If that theory is true, then there ought to be a deep continuity in a nation’s foreign policy. Israel is a laboratory for this theory, since it has existed in three different manifestations in roughly the same place, twice in antiquity and once in modernity. If geopolitics is correct, then Israeli foreign policy, independent of policymakers, technology or the identity of neighbors, ought to have important common features. This is, therefore, a discussion of common principles in Israeli foreign policy over nearly 3,000 years.

The article discusses the importance of the Levant as a land bridge:

The Levant in general and Israel in particular has always been a magnet for great powers. No Mediterranean empire could be fully secure unless it controlled the Levant. Whether it was Rome or Carthage, a Mediterranean empire that wanted to control both the northern and southern littorals needed to anchor its eastern flank on the Levant. For one thing, without the Levant, a Mediterranean power would be entirely dependent on sea lanes for controlling the other shore. Moving troops solely by sea creates transport limitations and logistical problems. It also leaves imperial lines vulnerable to interdiction — sometimes merely from pirates, a problem that plagued Rome’s sea transport. A land bridge, or a land bridge with minimal water crossings that can be easily defended, is a vital supplement to the sea for the movement of large numbers of troops. Once the Hellespont is crossed, the coastal route through southern Turkey, down the Levant and along the Mediterranean’s southern shore, provides such an alternative.

There is much more, and I recommend the article to students of geography. I might also point out a few critical geopolitical principles that the author neglected to mention.

“Woe to those…who do not look to the Holy One of Israel…the Egyptians are men and not God” (Isaiah 31:1).

“If you fully obey the Lord your God…the Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you” (Deut 28:1,7).

“I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1-2).

The Desert will Flourish

Israel’s Biblical Landscape Reserve

Neot Kedumim is a treasure in the heart of Israel that too few visitors know about. This biblical landscape reserve is located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and includes 620 acres of trees, plants, flowers, and fauna that were common in Israel in the biblical period.

A new three-minute video does a great job of showing the park in its glory (HT: Biblical Flora).

 

The above was posted at the Bible Place Blog here.