(Post by Seth M. Rodriquez)

Our Picture of the Week comes from the Sinai Peninsula: a rugged, mountainous area in eastern Egypt. This region was in the news this week due to violence and unrest in the area related to the political turmoil of the last couple of months. On Tuesday, one reporter stated,

“Sinai is always a bit of a sort of lawless area, but it’s especially that way now. There’s been daily attacks there ever since the takeover by the military from President Morsi six weeks ago. And some of these checkpoints – military checkpoints, police checkpoints – have been shot at 50, 60 times. You can see the bullet holes, you can see the burn marks where grenades have been fired at them.” —Robert Worth, in “Sinai Peninsula Sees Increasing Violence Since Morsi Takeover,” NPR ©2013, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=211735488. 

The statement that the Sinai Peninsula is a “lawless area” has been an apt description of the region throughout history. It has always been an area that was difficult to control, and often times has been a haven for those who sought refuge from civilization. For example, Elijah sought refuge in this area when he was fleeing from Jezebel (1 Kgs. 19:1-8). Not much has changed from then until now. It is still a relatively desolate place where those who want to avoid authorities can thrive.

A nineteenth century traveler once described the region in the following way:

Through the whole journey in the peninsula, or in the “Desert of the Wanderings,” is noticeable in the clear luminous air the deep silence. The Arabs conducting the distinguished Niebuhr declared that their voices could be heard from shore to shore of the Gulf of ’Akabah. Exaggeration doubtless, but exaggeration of a fact—that in these silent regions the human voice travels a long way. Noticeable also is the fragrance of the Desert. Most of the low shrubs, which seem more dead than alive on one’s stony path, are aromatic. But notice-worthy beyond everything is the desolation and mountain confusion. Most desolate, most barren—for the little oases of verdure we have mentioned are lost out of sight in any general view of the mountains—these hills of Sinai are the “Alps unclothed.” A naked Switzerland, even though its glaciers and snows should remain, seems inconceivable; but Sinai is naked as to any verdure of forest tree, or fir, or pine, or moss, or flowery pasture. Strange lichens grow on the boulders and rocks in some parts, as weird in form as vivid in colouring. Such a path as that which leads up Jebel Katharína is all the world over much the same as a Swiss mountain-path, but the illusion vanishes when one looks for the shade of the trees which beguile the way up a ravine in Switzerland. Then the confusion—the intricate complication of peak and ridge! One traveller (Sir Frederic Henniker) says of the view from Jebel Músa, that it is as if “Arabia Petræa were an ocean of lava, which, whilst its waves were running mountains high, had suddenly stood still.”

The Sinai Peninsula is perhaps best described as a rugged, “in between” place. It’s the perfect setting for those who want to remove themselves from the rest of the world, which makes it a dangerous place for those who are just passing through.

The picture and excerpt are taken from “Sinai” by C. Pickering Clarke in Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt, Vol. 4, edited by Charles Wilson (London: J. S. Virtue and Co., 1881; electronic ed. by Todd Bolen, 2004 ). The excerpt can be found on p. 17. This image and an electronic copy of the book is included in Picturesque Palestine, Volume IV: Sinai and Egypt which is available here for $20 (or you can purchase all 4 volumes for $55). More images of the Sinai Peninsula are available on the BiblePlaces website here and here, and on LifeintheHolyLand.com here and here.

(Post by Seth M. Rodriquez)

Our “Picture of the Week” focuses on the small, but significant, Kishon River. It is not a place that you would visit on a typical trip to Israel. In fact, I’ve been to Israel four times (two of which were extended stays) and I have never stopped there. Perhaps that is because the river does not look very impressive. Nevertheless, a couple of significant biblical events took place along this watercourse, and the geography surrounding and forming the river have played a crucial role throughout history.

The Kishon River drains much of the water from the Jezreel Valley and Lower Galilee. The Bible mentions this river by name a total of five times (Judg 4:7, 13; 5:21; 1 Kgs 18:40; Ps 83:9). It was here that Deborah and Barak defeated the 900 chariots of Sisera after gathering their forces at Mount Tabor, and it was here that Elijah had the prophets of Baal slain after the showdown on Mount Carmel.

In Judges 5:21, the Kishon is referred to as a “torrent,” but a visit to the site reveals that most of the time it is a rather timid river. In his book, The Geography of the Bible, Denis Baly describes the Kishon by saying:

Dry in its upper courses in summer, and only a trickle when it passes Harosheth [near its end], this famous stream is often a sad disappointment to visitors …

Yet on that fateful day in history, the river swelled with rainwater and swept away Sisera’s retreating army of chariots (Judg. 5:21).

The image above was a sketch of the river as it looked in the 1870s. At this location, the Kishon leaves the Jezreel Valley and enters the Plain of Asher through a narrow pass where the hills of Lower Galilee almost touch Mount Carmel. This choke-point is one of the reasons why the Jezreel Valley contains such rich soil. As the soil erodes into the valley from the surrounding hills, the river is not able to carry it out to sea. Instead, the river is blocked: first by a low ridge of volcanic rock that cuts across the valley in a northeast line starting near Megiddo, and then again by the foothills of Western Lower Galilee. Baly describes the outcome of these geographical features in this way:

The Kishon, small though it is, has to carry away the entire drainage from the surrounding hills, but it is twice hindered in this formidable task, once by the volcanic causeway and then again by the narrow defile through which it finds its way to the Bay of Acco. In consequence the two basins thus formed are only too easily flooded in winter, sometimes for prolonged periods, and W. M. Thomson, who knew the country well a century and a half ago, speaks of having “no little trouble with its bottomless mire and tangled grass.” In February, 1905, Gertrude Bell wrote even more feelingly of riding from Haifa to Jenin: “The road lay all across the Plain of Esdraelon … and the mud was incredible. We waded sometimes for an hour at a time knee deep in clinging mud, the mules fell down, the donkeys almost disappeared … and the horses grew wearier and wearier.” … Yet it was always “the rich valley,” for once dried out, the bottomless mud bears notable harvests.

So the Kishon River is not much to look at most of the time and until the rise of modern transportation it caused all sorts of difficulties for travelers during the rainy season when it flooded the valley. Yet for all this, it has played a key role in making the Jezreel Valley into a region of rich farmland. The fertile soil in this valley combined with the valley’s strategic location along the international trade route made the control of this area a coveted prize for many nations throughout history.

This image and 150 others (along with the entire text of Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt, Vol. 3) are available in Picturesque Palestine III: Phoenicia, Philistia, and the South. This digital volume can be purchased here for $20, or you can purchase all four volumes of the work for $55. Additional images of the Jezreel Valley can be seen here on the BiblePlaces website. Excerpts were taken from Denis Baly, The Geography of the Bible, new and revised ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1974), pp. 144, 146-147.