We start today at Ma’ale Akrabim named Scorpions Ascent in English, at Rogem Tsafir – the lowest of the three security stations along the ascent in the Roman period. The site revealed a building with several rooms. The building was restored in the 1980s. The other two stations that we will visit later are the ruins of Tsafir and Tsafir Fort.
To receive a proper perspective on the ancient road “Ma’ale Akrabim”, two minutes on the topic of roads in ancient time. The roads along a given route were used by the ancient civilizations for thousands of years, such as those mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, for example: the king’s road, the mountain road, and others. The more the historical entities adopted the principle of permanent settlements, and the more they maintained commercial and cultural ties with other political entities, the more significant the traffic became.
Planning and maintaining a road were not then nor today an easy task. A kingdom that wanted to build a new road was required to expropriate land from residents, and this did not go easily even with strong and established regimes, hence it was common to preserve the route of ancient roads for hundreds and thousands of years.
I will refer to the Roman period in the land of Israel as an example – the Romans saw transportation as a key infrastructure need of their empire and therefore invested the means and knowledge they had in building a network of roads throughout their territory. What are the reasons for this? Mainly military and administrative, that is, to allow the rapid transfer at any given time of army units to the battlefields in case of war or rebellion. At the same time, the roads also served the civil traffic in its various aspects, for example transporting goods, people and mail. Traveling at that time was not the best experience. The average traffic speed was about 30 km/h, you must be saying to yourself try to drive in a large city these days and see if you can drive faster, I must admit, there is appoint here. A normal cart could carry at most half a ton. There were no springs for shock absorption and riding in the carriage was very uncomfortable, to say the least.
From an administrative point of view, the security and maintenance of the roads was in many cases assigned to the Roman army. In times of peace, it was done with the aim of keeping the soldiers busy. But there were cases when this work was assigned to the local population as part of the mandatory work imposed by the authorities.
Important items are the milestones – the Romans made sure to place milestones along their roads at distances of 1 Roman mile, which is a thousand double steps. Its actual length was approximately 1.5km. The milestones were intended to indicate the distance from the destination to which the road led, but their main function was propaganda for the purpose of spreading the name of the emperor and demonstrating the loyalty of the commissioner and his subordinates to the emperor. So, we should not be surprised by their size, they were usually made of chalk at a height of 1.5-2.5m. The milestones served as a solid proof that the axis along which they were placed was indeed a state Roman road.
We are at the beginning of the ascent mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Numbers chapter 34, the borders of the promise Land, the land of Israel are listed: see verse 4. In the book of Joshua, chapter 15, Ma’ale Akrabim is mentioned as part of the southern border of Judah tribe.
Many researchers identify Ma’ale Akrabim with the steep and winding passage in front of us, the road that leads from Hatzeva to the northern Negev plain, but the sources, including the Hebrew Bible, are sufficient for a general determination of its located and not for its exact location. For what purpose was the road built and when was it built? The answer in few hundred meters.
Here are remains of the ascent that was carved in ancient times, its length is 1900m, but in order to reduce the slopes, they built windings and extended the road to 2500m. In 1927, during the British Mandate, a vehicle road was built in a parallel hill between two of the Camel Riders police stations: between Ein Hatzeva and Mamshit. to strengthen the rule of law in the region. The Ascent served as a main transportation artery between Beer Sheva and Eilat in the south.
The quarrying of the graded trail is attributed to the Romans. According to archaeologists Yigal and Yoram Teper, this quarrying was done in the days of the Second Temple, decades before the Roman paving, along the routes of the pilgrims to Jerusalem. At the same time, it is known that the Roman army engineers sometimes paved roads along traditional routes and sometimes alongside them. The structural boxes here by definition are not stairs, because they were built even where there is no slope. The Roman engineers always preferred to pave the roads with moderate gradients and a straight route.
In different local sources it is stated that the Jewish public prepared roads for the pilgrims in the days of the Second Temple even before the Roman paving, and these are probably the steps carved on the pilgrimage paths to Jerusalem.
The Israelites were commanded by the Hebrew Bible to go up to the Temple three times a year, and so it is written in the book of Deuteronomy 16:16. During most of the days of the first temple, the Israelites followed this command. People, women and children came to Jerusalem from faraway places such as the north and south of Israel, and for this purpose they used official roads that were paved long before the Roman occupation, which took place hundreds of years later towards the end of the Second Temple. Even in the days of the Second Temple, the Jews made pilgrimages to Jerusalem from all over the Land of Israel, and from the diasporas in Babylon, Persia, Syria, Egypt, and from many other places.
Along Nabatean roads, steps were sometimes carved as in the Petra area. For those who climbed to the ancient monastery in Petra, I have no doubt that they will not forget the infinity number of stairs. It is possible that Ma’ale Akrabim with its steps is also a public enterprise of the Nabateans along one of their trade routes, maybe a parallel route to the incense trail. Due to the continuous friction, it is reasonable to assume mutual influences between the cultures of the Nabataeans, the Edomites, and the Jews in the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods.
Josephus Flavious, the Roman Jewish historian, testified about the reasons and the areas over which the Hasmoneans fought against the Nabateans: John Hyrcanus conquered Idumea and converted the Edomites. His son, Alexander Yanai conquered Gaza. They pushed the Nabateans out of their traditional trade routes, both from Petra to Damascus and from Petra to Gaza and thus the Hasmoneans gained economic benefits. Hyrcanus and Yanai occupied a wide area east of the Jordan river and founded Jewish settlements, also in the Zoara Valley, south of the Dead Sea, alongside another Nabatean trade route from Petra to Mamshit. With all that, it seems that the stepped Ma’ale Akrabim was carved by the Hasmoneans, along an ancient Nabatean trade route. After the transfer of control over it to the Hasmonean kingdom, it served the pilgrims to Jerusalem and constituted a trade route from Petra and the Gulf of Eilat to the coastal cities of the Land of Israel.
It is reasonable to assume that the trade service continued in part from Ma’ale Akrabim to Mamshit, and for the pilgrims, the route turned from Ma’ale Akrabim towards Ein Yorkeam and from there through the Big Crater to Yeruham and Jerusalem in the days of the Second Temple, or towards the center in Yavneh after the destruction of the Temple. Evidence to this is found in another stepped ascent, which was carved next to Ein Yorkeam which was the source of drinking water and purification along the same road. Ein Yorkeam was a natural water source at the head of Yorkeam brook, a few kilometers northwest of the head of Ma’ale Akrabim. This water source, stores winter flood water during most seasons. It forms the main water reservoir in the area.
In the Roman period, the ancient route was preserved and was under the supervision of Fortresses built along it at the end of the third century and were also used during the fourth century. We visited Rogem Tsafir and now we are in Horvat Tsafir. Three such forts were built along Ma’ale Akrabim.
The route was used during the Roman period for the passage of trade convoys from the Gulf of Eilat to the coastal cities. Throughout the third and fourth centuries, the Romans founded a southern administrative unit. During that time, they moved the 10th Roman Legion from Jerusalem to the Gulf of Eilat to defend against invasions from the south and to protect the passage of trade convoys from Ethiopia through the Gulf of Eilat. After the annexation of the Nabatean Kingdom to the Roman Empire, the road and the fortifications between Petra and Ovdat were abandoned at the beginning of the 3rd century, and from the middle of the 3rd century, the Roman army used the road from Eilat-Ma’ale Akrabim-Mamshit, as part of the Incense trail, instead of the road between Petra and Ovdat. I expand on the Incense trail in the video about Hatzeva fortress.
We are in Horvat Tsafir which is at the top of the steep section of Ma’ale Akrabim. This is the largest fortress along the route. Due to the hour and the short-day time left, we decided not to continue today to Tsafir Fort which was used as a road guard station since the middle of the third century.
And to conclude, as usual I have a question for you: When the pilgrims arrived in Jerusalem, through which gate they entered the Temple Mount, the answer will appear at the end of the video.
