As you climb the route 866 on the way to Meron and Tsfat, as you approach Nahal Tsalmon at Parod you can just see some grey stone peeping above the trees on the mountainside. But you'd have to know to look, even coming down hill the other way, where you can also miss a momentary glimpse - albeit far more comprehensive - of what appears to be a huge heap of stones above the trees.
But the view from the air is unmistakeable, as is the view below, taken from the tower of the nearby Tegart fort at Shefer.
Yonatan and I decided to explore this little-known, little-understood and unvisited site. Known in Arabic as Rujum en-Nabi Shua’ayb (Stone heap of the prophet Shua’ayb, that is, Jethro), this crescent shaped monument is located some 8 miles (15 kilometers) from the Sea of Galilee. It has been measured as 14,000 cubic meters (494,405 cubic feet) in volume and about 150 meters (164 yards) long, making it visible from satellite photos. Bronze Age pottery excavated at the site dates the construction to between 3050 BCE and 2650 BCE, which would place it before Egypt’s pyramids.
Although the site’s existence was long known, many archaeologists had believed the amalgamation of stones was an ancient city wall. In 2014, Ido Wachtel, a Hebrew University PhD candidate, discovered that the structure stood alone and did not act as any sort of fortification. It is conjectured that its shape might mimic the moon; indeed it is some 18 miles (29 kilometers) from Beit Yerah, an ancient pre-Talmudic town that translates to “House of the Moon.” This town was known to have commercial trading operations with the ancient Egyptians and is a considered to be a one day journey from the monument by the era’s traveling standards. Similar structures have also been found in the area; one of them, Rujum el-Hiri, is located east of the Sea of Galilee in the Golan Heights. Another rock structure, first detected in 2003, was found underneath the Sea of Galilee and is larger than England’s Stonehenge.
Nabi Shua’ayb was the object of traditional veneration by Druze and Sunni Muslims throughout Palestine. According to local tradition Nabi Shua’ayb wanted to build his house here after coming from the land of Midian. Having gathered a lot of stones he went to the spring at the foot of the hill and found the carcass of a pig there, so he decided to leave in the direction of Hittin, near Tiberias, where his grave is to this day. There are stories how, during the Ottoman period, Druze who were unable to go to the grave at Hittin for various reasons, were satisfied with standing on the rubble at Rujum en-Nabi Shua’ayb, and looking in the direction of his grave at Hittin.
Though in the trees above a national park picnic site, with walking trails around it, the site is completely unmarked. We used our sense of direction with the aid of a map to head up the steep wooded hillside, but soon met a barbed-wire fence! With Yonatan's encouragement we found a way under it and scaled the hillside, every step causing well-camouflaged butterflies to rise from the pine needles. They wouldn't settle long enough to identify them, but we did catch one on camera by chance, with its wings closed (see below); possibly it's a skipper of some kind (Carcharodus spp) but hard to be sure!
Eventually we hit a forest track, and headed along it, realising that this would be our way back (it would have been almost impossible to go back the way we came due to the steepness and the loose nature of the earth). And then we hit the cairn, and very impressive it was!
Below is the view south along the cairn, the hill in the forground being Tel Be'er Sheba of the Galil.
Below is the view north along the cairn; you can just make out the tower of the Tegart fort at Shefer on the hill opposite.
Yonatan enjoying the sun and the quiet!
A panoramic view to the south:
The picture below shows where excavations were carried out in 2014, revealing bronze-age pottery some 5,000 years old.
After five thousand years, the trees have begun to creep up the cairn although without any cover between them, so that the lower reaches of the cairn are clearly visible, as in the picture below
In the picture below - which shows an area we presumed was cleared by the archaeologists to reveal the sub-structure - you can clearly see that this is no mere jumble of rubble, as appears at first glance (if it were it would not have lasted so long). The structure is of sorted medium-sized fieldstones carefully laid into the cair so as to support the structure without it sliding down the hillside.
None of the stones is dressed, and they are pretty uniform in type, though odd ones are pink, like that below, which also appears to have incised parallel lines which we could not figure out, but which seemed manmade.
Here is the remains of a pine trunk which has gradually become worn down and wind-dried in a beautiful way.
The thistle season is sull on - these ones take on a most artificial-looking blue to their leaves.
We found a sizeable pine self-seeded in a very shallow depression in a rock; to reach this size in such a dry climate it must surely have exploited a fissure and put roots down into the ground. Eventually it will no doubt crack the rock asunder.
Shefer through the trees. We followed the forest path towards Shefer, picking up the marked trail along the Tzalmon stream back to the car park.
The dry bed of Nahal Tzalmon. Everything in the path of this seasonal torrent is coated with lime...
...including this discarded tyre!
At the foot of the hill, just above Parod, are a few houses, next to a spring.
The Ein Parod Trough, constructed in 1962-3 and opened by the President of Israel, Yitzhak Ben Zvi, is now dry, but was part of a series of cascades connected with the Parod waterfall across the road on the Tzalmon stream.