Mount Hermon

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Mount Hermon

Mount Hermon (; , Har Hermon, ,, Jabal el-Shaiykh, Jabal Haramon,"mountain of the chief" and "snowy mountain") is a mountain

Mountain

A mountain is a landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is generally steeper than a hill....
in the Anti-Lebanon

Anti-Lebanon

File:Satellite image of Lebanon in March 2002.jpgThe Anti-Lebanon mountains, is the Western name for the Eastern Lebanon Mountain Range ,which are a northeast-trending mountain range between Syria and Lebanon....
mountain range

Mountain range

A mountain range is a chain of mountains bordered by highlands or separated from other mountains by mountain pass or valleys. Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geology, though they often do; they may be a mix of different orogeny, for example volcanoes, uplifted mountains or Fold mountains...
. Its highest point is 2,814 m (9,230 feet) above sea level

Sea level

Mean sea level is the average height of the sea, with reference to a suitable reference surface. Defining the reference level , however, involves complex measurement, and accurately determining MSL can prove difficult....
. This summit is on the border between Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
and Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic , is a country in Western Asia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea....
, and is under Syrian control. The southern slopes of Mount Hermon have been in Israel

Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
i control since the Six-Day War

Six-Day War

In the Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967, Israel defeated the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. In Arabic, the war is called ....
in 1967. This part of the mountain, as well as the Golan Heights

Golan Heights

The Golan Heights is a contested, strategic plateau and mountainous region at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. The term Golan Heights actually has two separate meanings, one geography and one political:...
, was annexed by Israel in 1981.

Geography
The mountain is actually a cluster of mountains with three distinct summits, each about the same height.

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Encyclopedia

Mount Hermon (; , Har Hermon, ,, Jabal el-Shaiykh, Jabal Haramon,"mountain of the chief" and "snowy mountain") is a mountain

Mountain

A mountain is a landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is generally steeper than a hill....
in the Anti-Lebanon

Anti-Lebanon

Mountain range

Sea level

Syria

Lebanon

Israel

Six-Day War

Golan Heights

Geography

The mountain is actually a cluster of mountains with three distinct summits, each about the same height. The Anti-Lebanon range extends for approximately 150 km (93 miles) in a northeast-southwest direction, running parallel to the Lebanon range on the west.

The Hermon range covers an area of about 1000 square km

Square kilometre

Square kilometre , symbol km2, is a decimal multiple of the SI Units of measurement of surface area, the square metre, one of the SI derived units....
, of which about 70 km² are under Israeli control.

The mountain forms one of the greatest geographic resources of the area. Because of its height it captures a great deal of precipitation

Precipitation (meteorology)

File:MeanMonthlyP.gifIn meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of Atmosphere water vapor that is deposited on the earth's surface....
in a very dry area of the world. The Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period that extends from about annum to Ma, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous....
limestone

Limestone

File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
is broken by faults

Geologic fault

In geology, a fault or fault line is a planar Fracture in rock in which the rock on one side of the fracture has moved with respect to the rock on the other side....
and solution channels to form a karst topography

Karst topography

Karst topography is a landscape shaped by the Solvation of a layer or layers of soluble bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite....
.

Mount Hermon has seasonal snow

Snow

Snow is a type of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. The process of this precipitation is called snowfall....
which covers all three of its peaks for most of the year in winter and spring. Melt water from the snow-covered mountain's western and southern bases seeps into the rock channels and pores, feeding springs at the base of the mountain, which form stream

Stream

A stream is a body of water less than 60 feet wide with a current , confined within a stream bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as brook, beck, Burn , creek, crick, kill, lick , rill, river syke, bayou, rivu...
s and river

River

A river is a natural stream of water, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, or another stream. In some cases a river flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water....
s. These merge to become the Jordan River

Jordan River

The Jordan River is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers. It is 251 kilometers long....
. Additionally, the runoff

Surface runoff

Surface runoff is the water flow which occurs when soil is infiltrated to full capacity and excess water, from rain, snowmelt, or other sources flows over the land....
facilitates fertile plant life below the snow line, where vineyard

Vineyard

A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture....
s and pine

Pine

Pines are Pinophyta trees in the genus Pinus, in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species....
, oak

Oak

The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of about 400 species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus , which are listed in the List of Quercus species, and some related genera, notably Lithocarpus....
, and poplar

Poplar

Populus is a genus of between 25?35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere....
tree

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
s are abundant.

The springs, and the mountain itself, are much contested by the nations of the area for the use of the water. It is important that the government that controls the mountain, as well as the springs below, realize their responsibility to guard against deforestation

Deforestation

Deforestation is the logging or burning of trees in forested areas. There are several reasons for doing so: trees or derived charcoal can be sold as a commodity and are used by humans while cleared land is used as pasture, plantations of commodities and human settlement....
and pollution

Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms ....
.

Mount Hermon is called the "gray-haired mountain," or the "mountain of snow." It is also called "the eyes of the nation" in Israel

Israel

Strategic early warning system

The aim of an Strategic Early Warning System is to assist organizations in dealing with discontinuities or strategic ?surprises?. By detecting ?signal ? , which can be perceived as important discontinuities in an organizational environment, SEWS allows organizations to react strategy ahead of time....
.^citation

Biblical history

Mount Hermon was called Senir by the Amorite

Amorite

Amorite refers to a Semitic language people who occupied the country west of the Euphrates from the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. The term Amurru refers to them, as well as to their principal deity....
s and Sirion by the Sidon

Sidon

Sidon,or Sa?da, is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, Lebanon of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean Sea coast, about 40 km north of Tyre, Lebanon and 40 km south of the capital Beirut....
ians (; ; ; ; ). The mountain served as the northern boundary of the Promised Land

Promised land

The Promised Land is a term used to describe the land promised by God, according to the Hebrew Bible, to the Israelites. The promise is made to Abraham and the descendants of his son Isaac, and Isaac's son Jacob, Abraham's grandson, as they are all given promises that their descendants will be given a territory from the River of Egypt to t...
and also was the northern limit of the conquest ( ).

The high places of Mount Hermon were apparently used by the Canaan

Canaan

Canaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt....
ites in Canaanite mythological rituals. They referred to the mountain

Mountain

A mountain is a landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is generally steeper than a hill....
as Mount Ba'al-Hermon . It is also called Mount Sion
Mount Sion

Mount Sion is a Gaelic Athletic Association club located in Waterford City, County Waterford, Republic of Ireland, founded by Brs O'Connor and Malone, teachers in the above school....
or Mount Siyon .

The Gospels tell of Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
and his disciples

Disciple (Christianity)

In the History of Christianity, the disciples were the students of Jesus during his Ministry of Jesus. While Jesus attracted a large following, the term disciple is commonly used to refer specifically to "Twelve Apostles", an inner circle of men whose number perhaps represented the twelve tribes of Israel....
journeying north from Bethsaida

Bethsaida

Category:All articles lacking sourcesBethsaida is a place mentioned in the New Testament....
on the Sea of Galilee

Sea of Galilee

The Sea of Galilee, also Sea of Genneseret, Lake Kinneret or Lake Tiberias , is Israel's largest freshwater lake, being approximately 53 km in circumference, about 21 km long, and 13 km wide....
to the city of Caesarea Philippi

Banias

Banias is an archaeological site by the uninhabited former city of Caesarea Philippi, located at the foot of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights ....
at the southern base of Mount Hermon (; ). There, Jesus revealed to them his purpose to build his Church and to go to Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
to die and be resurrected .

Mount Hermon was a possible site of the Transfiguration

Transfiguration of Jesus

The Transfiguration of Jesus is an event reported by the Synoptic Gospels in which Jesus is transfigured upon a mountain . Jesus becomes radiant, speaks with Moses and Elijah, and is called "Son" by God....
, where Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
took three of his disciples, Peter

Saint Peter

Saint Peter was a leader of the early Christianity church, who features prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles....
, James

Saint James the Great

Saint James, son of Zebedee or Yaakov Ben-Zebdi/Bar-Zebdi, was one of the disciples of Jesus. He was a son of Zebedee and Salome , and brother of John the Apostle....
, and John

John the Apostle

John the Apostle was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. Christian tradition identifies him as the author of several New Testament works: the Gospel of John, the Epistles of John, and the Book of Revelation....
, up on a high mountain for prayer. Before their eyes, Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
was transfigured. He became radiantly white and conversed with Moses

Moses

Moses is a Hebrew Bible Hebrews religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, to whom the Mosaic authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew , he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bah?'? Faith, Rastafari movement, Chrislam and many ot...
and Elijah, who had appeared beside him. The disciples' amazement and fear were further increased, when a voice from Heaven

Heaven

Heaven may refer to the physical heavens, the atmosphere or the seemingly endless expanse of the universe beyond. This is the traditional literal meaning of the term in English, however since at least AD 1000, it is typically also used to refer to an afterlife plane of existence in various religions and spirituality philosophy, often descri...
exclaimed, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him!" (; ; ).

In the Book of Enoch

Book of Enoch

The Book of Enoch is a pseudepigraphic work ascribed to Enoch, ancestor of Noah, the great-grandfather of Noah and son of Jared .While this book today is Biblical apocrypha in most Christian Churches, it was explicitly quoted in the New Testament and by many of the early Church Fathers....
, Mount Hermon is the place where the Grigori

Grigori

The Watchers or Grigori are a group of fallen angels told of in Biblical apocrypha who mated with mortal women, giving rise to a race of hybrids known as the Nephilim, who are also mentioned in ....
("Watcher") class of fallen angel

Fallen angel

In most Christianity traditions, a fallen angel is an angel that has been exiled or banished from Heaven.Often such banishment is a punishment for disobeying or rebelling against God....
s descended to Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
. They swore upon the mountain that they would take wives among the daughters of men and return (Enoch 6).

Contemporary situation

The Israeli sector was captured by Israel, along with much of the Golan Heights

Golan Heights

Six-Day War

In the Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967, Israel defeated the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. In Arabic, the war is called ....
of June 1967. It was captured by Syria

Syria

Yom Kippur War

The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to October 26, 1973 by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel....
, following the First Battle of Mount Hermon

First Battle of Mount Hermon

The First Battle of Mount Hermon was fought at the outset of the Yom Kippur War between the Syrian Army and the Israel Defense Forces . On Yom Kippur, October 6, 1973, Syrian commandos attacked the Israeli outpost on Mount Hermon, and captured it....
. Israel recaptured both the Israeli and Syrian sectors on October 21, during Operation Dessert. The Syrian sector was returned to Syria after the war.

Since 1981, the Israel

Israel

Golan Heights Law

The Golan Heights Law is the Israeli law which applies Israel's government and laws to the Golan Heights. It was ratified by the Knesset on December 14, 1981....
. Mount Hermon has Israel's only ski resort

Ski resort

A ski area is a developed recreational facility, usually on a mountain or large hill, containing skiing trails and vital supporting services....
, including a wide range of ski trails at novice, intermediate, and expert levels. It also offers additional winter family activities such as sled

Sled

A sled, sledge or sleigh is a vehicle with runners for sliding instead of wheels for rolling. It is used for transport on surfaces with low friction, usually snow or ice but any grassy surface is good when it is not too dry....
ding and Nordic skiing

Nordic skiing

Nordic skiing is a winter sport that encompasses all types of skiing where the heel of the boot cannot be fixed to the ski. This includes a wide range of ski equipment and techniques such as classic and skate cross country skiing, ski jumping, biathlon, and telemark skiing....
. Those who operate the Hermon Ski area live in the nearby Israeli moshav

Moshav

Moshav is a type of Israeli settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms settlered by the Labor Zionisms during the second aliyah ....
of Neve Ativ

Neve Ativ

Neve Ativ is a small Israeli moshav in the Golan Heights, founded in 1972, and located on the slopes of Mount Hermon two kilometres west of Majdal Shams....
and the Druze

Druze

The Druze are a religious community found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and in the Palestinian territories whose traditional religion is said to have begun as an offshoot of Islam, but is unique in its incorporation of Gnosticism, Neoplatonism and other philosophies, similar to other followers of Ismaili Shi'a Islam....
town of Majdal Shams

Majdal Shams

Majdal Shams is a Druze village in the northern part of the Golan Heights, the center of Druze life in the region. Majdal Shams is situated in the southern foothills of Mt....
. The ski resort has a ski school, ski patrol, and several restaurants located at either the bottom or peak of the area.

The Israeli sector of the mountain is heavily patrolled by the Israel Defense Forces

Israel Defense Forces

The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew Acronym and initialism Tzahal , are Israel's military forces, comprising the GOC Army Headquarters, Israeli Air Force and Israeli navy....
and the Israel Police

Israel Police

The Israel Police is a civilian force in the State of Israel. As with most other police forces in the world, its duties include crime fighting, traffic control and maintaining public safety....
, and the Israeli Security Forces

Israeli Security Forces

Security forces in Israel include a variety of organizations, including Law enforcement agency, military, paramilitary, Government, and Intelligence agency....
maintain a strategic observation post

Observation post

An observation post, temporary or fixed, is a position from which soldier can watch enemy movements, to warn of approaching soldiers , or to direct artillery fire....
for monitoring Syrian and Lebanese

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic , is a country in Western Asia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea....
military activity near Mitzpe Shlagim ("Snow Lookout"), which is at an elevation of about 2,224 m (7,300 feet). Its adjacent peak, at 2,236 m, is the highest elevation in Israel

Israel

Ski resort

A ski area is a developed recreational facility, usually on a mountain or large hill, containing skiing trails and vital supporting services....
on the slopes of the mountain.

Since 1996, a small Lebanese group, led by Michel Malik of Rashaya, have climbed to the top of Mount Hermon annually for the feast of Jesus' transfiguration on August 6. The group includes Christians of various denominations as well as Druze. In spite of its religious diversity, the group is Christ-centered, and most of its members participate in the Maronite mass celebrated on the mountaintop.

In 2005 the municipality of Rashaya constructed a road for jeeps that reaches an altitude of 2,400 m. There are mixed opinions about the environmental and cultural aspects of this road, as well as its utility and necessity. The municipality was also behind building a camping site and organizing trips to the top. For the past few years the climb to Mount Hermon has been receiving publicity due to newspaper articles and television news coverage. The 2006 climb was canceled on account of war.

Villages

On the Israeli slopes of the mountain there are three villages: Majdal Shams

Majdal Shams

Majdal Shams is a Druze village in the northern part of the Golan Heights, the center of Druze life in the region. Majdal Shams is situated in the southern foothills of Mt....
(Druze

Druze

Neve Ativ

Neve Ativ is a small Israeli moshav in the Golan Heights, founded in 1972, and located on the slopes of Mount Hermon two kilometres west of Majdal Shams....
and Nimrod. On the Lebanese western slopes of the mountain complex are the following villages: Rachaya Al Foukhar

Rachaya Al Foukhar

Rachaya Al Foukhar is a Lebanon village in the district of Hasbaya District in the Nabatiye Governorate in southern Lebanon. It is located on the western slopes of Mount Hermon at an altitude starting at 750 m with the highest summit being at 1,250 m....
, Kfar Hamam

Kfarhamam

Kfarhamam is a small village located in the Arqoob region in the district of Hasbayya in Southern Lebanon, which lies on the Eastern side of the Nabatieh Governorate....
, Chebaa, Kfar Chouba, Hebbariyeh, El Mari, Khalouat El Bayada and Majidiyeh.

Mount Hermon

Geography

Biblical history

Contemporary situation

Villages

External links

See also

Footnotes