SPRING OF EIN HOD AND CRUSADER CASTLE AT HURVAT BEIT ITAB

THE HIKE:

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• Exit the main entrance of the parking lot by Bar Bahar and turn right on the main road, Route 3866. After a very short distance, take the turning on the left. From this road, turn right onto the jeep trail by the JNF sign for the American Independence Park. Continue along this trail until you come to a cemetery.

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• Continue on this path by the metal fence and this will take you around the cemetery and a vineyard. At the corner of the vineyard is a signpost. Continue straight ahead on the unmarked trail (and not the red-marked trail to the left).

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• After passing an overnight camping site, you will come to an observation area with five benches arranged in a semi-circle. From here you can see the ruins of the castle on the hill ahead and appreciate its commanding position.

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• There is a footpath opposite the benches. Take this delightful path down the hill. Turn right when you come to the red-marked trail.

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• When you come to a brick wall on your left and a blue national park sign, turn left on the red-marked trail towards the spring of Ein Hod .

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This spring is known as Ein Bet It’ab, and in Arabic En Khod, which means Spring of the Water Trough, and this was the spring for the Byzantine, Crusader and Arab villages that were once here. A shallow pool is evident. Underground is a reservoir from where a 40-meter tunnel leads to the spring. Adjacent to the pool is a shaft to the underground reservoir, although this is now closed off by a metal grid.

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• Continue on the red-marked trail up the hill and shortly you will come to a 3-way intersection with the black trail. Turn right here onto an unmarked trail and you will soon see stone steps on your left leading to a cave with a green sign outside it warning people not to enter. Ledges within the cave identify the cave as a colobarium (a place for raising doves). Now look even closer and you can see an opening at the bottom of the cave beneath the ledges. This is the exit for a steep 75-meter underground tunnel leading from inside the castle to the bottom of the hill that was built by the Crusaders. The entrance to the tunnel from the castle is collapsed, but it is theoretically possible (although forbidden) to climb up to that point.

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• Go back to the intersection and continue up the hill on the red-marked trail. At the fork where it meets the blue-marked trail, turn right onto the continuation of the red-marked trail to the ruins of the Crusader castle . The ruins are closed off, but you can ascend to an observation area for a beautiful view of the surrounding Judean Mountains, the Shefela, and to as far as the coastal plain. Bet Shemesh is straight ahead of you and to your right is the moshav Nes Harim.

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This fortress was built by the Frankish Crusader knight Johaness Gothman during the period of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the middle of the 1100's. He was captured by Islamic forces in 1161, and his wife was forced to sell his landholdings to pay for his bail. The property was taken over by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Its days as a Crusader fortress came to an end with the dissolution of the Kingdom of Jerusalem following the defeat of the Crusaders at the Battle of Hittin in the Galilee in 1187.

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The Arab village of Bayt Itab was located around the fortress and was captured by Israeli forces during the War of Independence as part of Operation Nachshon. Its inhabitants fled.

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• Descend from the observation platform and at the T-junction turn left onto the red trail. At the next intersection at the bottom of the ruins go down the hill on the blue-marked trail.

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• Continue on this blue-marked trail to the security fence of the moshav Bar Giora, and then to Route 3866. The entrance to Bar Behar is a very short distance on your right on the other side of the road.

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