Strategic importance of the valley The valley is the shortest route between the
Mediterranean Sea and the
Jordan Valley and therefore probably served as an eastern branch of the ancient
Via Maris. Due to the difficulties of passage in the west of the valley, due to the Wadi Shagur canyon and the icy ground in winter, there were periods when the road passed north of the valley. During the
Second Temple Days, the route south of the Beit HaKerem Valley was preferred, via
Shfar'am,
Tzipori, and from there to the Hananya Valley. This can be seen from the remains of settlements from this period, which are concentrated in the Hananya Valley and not in the Beit HaKerem Valley. The importance of the valley rose again in the
Crusader period, with the rise of
Acre and
Safed, the latter becoming an important
Crusader monastery. A church has been preserved from this period at
Deir al-Asad. From the
Mamluk period, until the end of the
Ottoman rule, the route through the Beit Hakerem Valley competed with the Acre-Shfar'am-Tzipori-Nazareth route. The valley became passable all year round in the late 1920s as a result of drainage and cultivation works, and in the 1930s a modern road was paved through it.
Settlement in the Valley During the
First Temple period, there were several settlements in the Valley, including Rama (Ramat Naftali) and Beit Hakerem. It is not possible to identify the exact location of any settlements from this period, except for Rama, which is identified with Khirbet Jull, near Ramah. The area contains numerous settlement remains from the
Hellenistic period to the
Crusader period, concentrated mainly on the edges of the
Hananya Valley and in the hills south of the Beit Hakerem Valley. Most of the remains are in the
Karmiel area, which indicates the possibility of an industrial center there. The Christian remains from the
Byzantine period in Israel indicate significant settlement in the Valley during this period, including Nahaf,
Deir al-Asad,
Majd al-Krum, and
Rameh. It seems that this settlement was severely damaged with the end of Byzantine rule in the country, and the Valley suffered from abandonment. After the expulsion of the last Crusaders from the country by the Muslims in 1291, the settlements in the north of the Valley, such as
Majd al-Krum and
Deir al-Assad, which were located near the source of the road, were destroyed. In the 11th century, according to their tradition, Druze settlement began in the Galilee. Other sources claim that the
Druze began to settle in the valley in the 13th century. In later periods, two significant waves of settlement occurred, in the 16th century and in the early 18th century. A testimony from the governor of
Safed from
1732 states that most of the inhabitants of the valley at that time were
Druze. During the reign of
Daher al-Omar in the
1740s, the Druze were dispossessed of their villages, and the only
Druze settlements remaining in the valley today are
Sajur,
Ein al-Asad and the village of
Rameh, a quarter of whose inhabitants are
Druze. ==See also==