Mt. Carmel

Mt. Carmel is a promontory that juts out into the Mediterranean Sea and helps to create the Bay of Acre and modern port city of Haifa. Mt. Carmel is the northwestern end of a 13 mile long range of hills extending into and dividing Palestine. The range of hills varies from 5 to 8 miles in width and in height from Mt. Carmel's 556 feet to a high point of approximately 1,800 feet near the southeastern end. The name Carmel means "garden, vineyard or orchard" and probably reflects the fertility of the slopes. The limestone hills weather into rich, red soil and the slopes of Mt. Carmel catch the rains which come in from the Mediterranean Sea. Today the olives, grain, and grapes grown along the slopes and the beautiful Bahai Garden Shrine reflect the fertility and beauty of the area. The Hebrew Bible compares Mt. Carmel to other productive parts of the Palestine (Isa. 35:2, Jer. 50:19) and uses Mt. Carmel in its description of the beautiful woman in the Song of Solomon (7:5). According to the division of the land in the Book of Joshua, Mt. Carmel was the southern boundary of the tribe of Asher (Josh. 19:26). During the divided kingdom Mt. Carmel may have formed the boundary between Tyre and Israel. Egyptian texts from the latter third of the second millennium B.C.E. refer to the mountain as the "Holy Head" implying the moutain may have been a cultic site or sanctuary. In the biblical text Mt. Carmel is the scene of Elijah's contest with the prophets of Ba`al to determine whether God or Ba`al was the true, powerful deity (1 Kings 18:20-40). During the Hellenistic and Roman periods the mountain remained a sacred site with a temple to Zeus and sacrifices to the deity Carmel. In the Christian period the site has been associated with the monastic tradition, particularly the Carmelite movement, and with the Bahai faith.