- Judean Mountains
The Judean Mountains, ( _ar. جبال الخليل;
Transliteration : "Jibal al-Khalil", _he. הרי יהודה;Transliteration : "Harei Yehuda") also referred to as the Judean Hills or Hebron Hills and Jibal al-Khalil, is the name for the mountain range of theJudea region upon whichJerusalem and several other biblical cities are located.Running generally north-south, the mountains extend both to the west and east of Jerusalem, the southern end known as
Mount Hebron . Other important cities in the mountain range areHebron ,Bethlehem andRamallah . The range forms a natural division between theShephelah coastal plains to the west and theJordan Rift Valley to the east, as well as causing therain shadow responsible for theJudean desert .In
prehistoric times, animals no longer found in theLevant region were found here, includingelephant s, rhinoceri,giraffe s andWild Asian Water Buffalo . [http://www.biu.ac.il/JS/rennert/history_2.html] The range haskarst topography including astalactite cave in Nahal Sorek National Park betweenJerusalem andBeit Shemesh and the area surroundingOfra , where fossils of prehistoric flora and fauna were found.The Judean Mountains have an
Israel Railways line which fromBet Shemesh along theBrook of Sorek andValley of Rephaim into Jerusalem's southern train station. Currently, a plan for development of the Judean Mountains region is in progress.External links
* [http://www.asergeev.com/pictures/archives/compress/2000/142/36.htm Pictures]
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