September 16th 2016 – Week 24; Allenby crossing the Yarkon river

Hi,
It is week 24 already! last third of the pregnant
Atzva is soon be reading the birth part of the pregnant books (she is scared about that part and me too ). There was no important exam or test this week, but next week there the sugar loading test. Basically Atzva has to drink 50g of sugar very fast and then have some blood test. The problem is, that if the test doesn’t so good signs you have to do a second test – and for this one you have to be in the hospital all day long

Now days I mostly run a long the Yarkon river, so you will probably hear a lot from me about it .

Last week Atzva and I had a walk to the Yarkon Estuary and found Allenby memorial pillar (Atzva found, I knew it was there ). It was set there after the British army led by Allenby manage to cross the Yarkon river during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in WWI. After capturing Beer Sheva in October 1917, the British were headed to Jerusalem an hoped to conquest it before Christmas. The Ottomans manage to hold a defense line along the width of Palestine from the Sea the Jordan river. One obstacle along this line was the Yarkon river, that is muddy and stretches from the sea to Judea mountains. After the first attempt to cross the Yarkon near its origins in November 24th 1917 was failed, the British forces crossed the Yarkon in three places in the a rainy night between the 20 and 21 of December 1917.

After the battle, the generals of British army decided to memorize the crossing points of the army with memory pillars. Those pillars are marble, and were taken from the antiques cities of Caesarea, Apollonia or Ashkelon. Each of them has writing both in Hebrew and English.

Yarkon Estuary – The western pillar

The pillar and the Estuary.

Writing explain about the memorial pillar in English and Hebrew, set by Tel Aviv Municipality in 2007.

The pillar and explanation on Tel Kudadi the pillar was set on. Tel Kudadi is a part sequence of tels (ancient mounds) lining the Yarkon river. A fort from the 8-9 century  BC was found in excavations done here, it was built to defend the Yarkon river from invaders from the sea.

The pillar and the nearby Reading Power station

Hil square – The middle pillar

 The memorial pillar on top of the hill. The square is called on the name of Major General John Hil that lead the crossing of the Yarkon river.

The garden and the small waterfall below and around the memorial pillar  – Allenby

One of the burial caves from 4000 BC around, most of them were sealed and closed.

The area before the garden (source: The Building of Yafo-Tel-Aviv Tells) [added 09.02.2019]

The Eastern Pillar

The eastern pillar on both sides.

The explanation plates in Hebrew about the fight. Set by Ramat Gan municipality

The memorial pillar below BSR Towers

Looking west – today and in 1917 (pic from wikimedia)

 

Pic form WWI video “CROSSING OF THE AUJA, MULEBBIS, GUNS NEAR JERUSALEM“