KOKHAV HAYARDEN

In Hebrew the name means ``Star of the Jordan.'' The Crusaders, who raised the giant castle on the 500-m.-high mountain, named it Belvoir. It is almost a castle in the air. From here a spectacular panorama unfolds. Down below, the Sea of Galilee is clearly visible, with the Jordan River leaking out at its southern extremity. To the South - biblical Mt. Gilboa and the Jezreel Valley. The hills of Galilee are in the northwest.

The Knights of the Order of the Hospitallers bought this site in the 12th century from the Velos family, members of the Galilee Dukedom. Then, when they had built the seemingly impregnable castle, they successfully withstood attacks by the Saracens. Finally, it was captured by Saladin. When the National Parks Authority restored the site, they found that many of the stones used in building it had been brought up from a 3rd-century CE synagogue at the Jewish townlet of Kokhav, 700 m. lower down and southeast of the fortress.

Open: seven days a week. Apr. - Sept. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Oct. - Mar. 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Entrance fee: Tel. (06)587000. Nearby there's a Tumarkin sculpture garden.

The road through the Bet Shean Valley (No. 90) passes the settlements of Neve Ur, Yardena, Bet Yosef and Hamadiya in quick succession. There is turn-off right to Afula the road you're on crosses a bridge and continues straight on to Bet Shean.

If you want to get even closer to the Jordan River and meet some of the friendliest kibbutzniks in the country, why not take the left fork (Road No. 71) to Kibbutz Ma'oz Haim. Pass factories employing Bet Shean residents and fork left again. Ma'oz Haim is one kilometre further on, just past Kibbutz Neve Etan.

The name ``Ma'oz Haim'' means ``Haim's Stronghold,'' and it commemorates Haim Sturman, a HaShomer veteran who was killed by an Arab-planted mine which exploded when he was on a land-purchasing mission in the area. You will learn more about him in the museum named after him at Kibbutz En Harod later on along this route. Ma'oz Haim, founded in 1937, was in the forefront of the shelling after the Six Day War. Its prize dairy herd was decimated during one bombardment.

At the end of the cotton fields, on the banks of the Jordan River, you can see the Sheikh Hussein Bridge which was destroyed in 1948. The bridge has been renamed the Peace Bridge. Some believe that it was at this point of the river that the Midianites fled from Gideon's army (Judges 7:24). A road from Amman, the capital of Jordan, to the port of Haifa ran through here, and will do so again now that there is peace between the two countries. It may well have been over the fields of present day Ma'oz Haim that King Saul's body was carried for cremation and burial on the Gilead (I Samuel 31:8-13).

The remains of a 4th-century synagogue have been found here make a point of seeing the ancient mosaic floor. To get to Bet Shean take the left fork on the road back, pass a war memorial and factories, and you are within the precincts of the city.