The water supplying system was hewn in the Middle Canaanite period and includes a shaft and a sloping tunnel that descends to a depth of 40 m below the surface - to the groundwater level. The tunnel allowed the city access to water sources even during a siege. Today, there is no water at the end of the tunnel. The descent takes place on a narrow, steep staircase (with a railing, but does not allow two people to pass at the same time). One of the best-known artifacts dug up in this area is the Gezer calendar. This is a plaque with a text, which seems to be a schoolboy's memory exercises or some descriptions for the collection of taxes. Some researchers even suppose that the text was a folk song, listing the months of the year. The tablet with an ancient inscription, dated back to 10th century BCE, is now in the Museum of Archaeology in Istanbul. It lets us know about the agricultural seasons and the ancient Middle East calendar.
A few hours walk along Tel Gezer. You can start a day with a picnic in the charming forest of Hamagenim. Then, through the village of Karmay Yosef, we rise to the famous ancient hill Gezer. At this place, the battles of ancient history took place and the Egyptian pharaoh subjugated the disobedient rulers of Canaan. These rulers gathered together and concluded military alliances near one of the most mysterious structures of the ancient East - stone giants from Tel Gezer. Descent into an ancient well of forty-meter depth is the most mysterious part of the walk. We will end the day in the cool water spring of Yarda, where the battle of the Crusaders against Saladin once took place.
Cover photo by: Maximidf - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62461515
Don't be afraid to get lost in new places!
