• Continue on this trail past Tel Goren. You will pass the Ein Gedi water bottling factory on your left. On the right is a memorial to six youth from the HaShomer HaTzair movement who were killed in 1946 when one of their own grenades blew up. 

 

Tel Goren (Tell el-Jurn) is the site of ancient Ein Gedi and was one of the most important oasis settlement sites in the Judean Desert. There is evidence from several major periods, especially the Iron Age (First Temple period), but also the Persian, Hellenistic and Hasmonean, and Roman and Byzantine periods. Under the Hasmoneans, Ein Gedi became a royal estate associated with valuable agricultural production. The Romans also highly prized the oasis because of its balsam, dates, and strategic location near the Dead Sea.

​

• Take the path up the hill to Ein Gedi Spring.  

​

1. You will pass the ruins of a structure from the Byzantine period with a tower and courtyard. A round industrial installation in the courtyard may have been used in balsam production. Shortly after this is the spring.

 

If there are no crowds, you may be fortunate to see Nubian ibex drinking in the pool. Nubian ibex are wild goats that became almost extinct as a result of hunting. They were rescued by the Nature Protection movement and the Wild Animal Protection Law of 1955. Next to the spring is a flourmill from the Mamluke period.

 

• Continue up the hill to the Chalcolithic Temple:

 

The Chalcolithic Temple. This pagan temple is worth exploring. On its southern wall is an entrance with a gate house. Proceed through the courtyard to the main building adjacent to its northern wall and enter through an entrance on its southern wall. Facing you is a hoof-shaped niche surrounded by a stone fence. Within it were found animal bones, sherds, ashes, and a clay statuette of a bull. It may well have contained an altar. Notice the round piece of white limestone on the ground, which could have been the base for a statue of the deity. Stone benches are laid out along the walls. The temple may have served a number of Chalcolithic communities in the area. The temple shows no signs of destruction and seems to have been abandoned.

 

The temple was constructed during the Chalcolithic Period. This was a period between the Neolithic Stone Age and Early Bronze Age, and extended from about 4,300 BCE to 3,300 BCE. It was a time of transition between simple farming communities and more complex sociopolitical communities. The term is applied not just to one culture but to a mosaic of cultural entities. Chalcolithic means copper and a feature of this period was the widespread use of copper. Bronze was not yet in use. 

​

Four hundred and thirty artifacts and cultic objects were found in a cave 11 km south of Ein Gedi, over 400 of which were made of copper, and it has been speculated that they were hidden in the cave when the temple was abandoned because of approaching danger.

Most Chalcolithic settlements were abandoned at the end of the Chalcolithic Period and new people moved into the country during the Early Bronze Age. The Middle Bronze Age, beginning in about 2100 BCE, is the time that the Canaanites and other tribes mentioned in the Bible settled in Canaan, and the time that the biblical patriarchs travelled throughout the country.

 

• At this point you may wish to visit the Dodim’s Cave, which is above David’s Waterfall. It will add about three quarter of an hour to your hike. There are pools in which you can swim, although they are not particularly deep. At the end of this trail, you can go down a short cliff face on metal rungs to reach Dodim’s Cave.

​​

• Return the way you came back to your car. If you are walking to the main parking lot, there is a turning on your left which will lead you to the Oasis Trail, and this will save you a bit of time.