The Mazor Mausoleum and Kula Forest

During these strange coronavirus times, running my own little business from home has its advantages but it does mean that some weeks I don't get out very much. I try to compensate for that at weekends and make sure that Mister Handmade in Israel and I go out for a walk in the countryside. One recent weekend we decided to go to the Kula forest, with a short stop at the nearby Mazor mausoleum. The mausoleum, in it current state of disrepair, is not worth a visit on its own, but is definitely worth a quick stop.

The Mazor mausoleum is one of the best preserved Roman buildings in Israel and is in fact the only Roman era building in Israel to still stand from its foundations to its roof. It was built for an important Roman man and his wife in the 3rd century AD. Their identities remain a mystery but one can still see the remnants of two sarcophagi inside the building.

The mausoleum was preserved because of a Muslim belief that it is the burial site of Nabi Yahya, a Muslim figure based on John the Baptist. John the Baptist had a church at nearby Majdal Yaba and is regarded in the Quran as a prophet. Local Arabs named it Makam en Nabi Yahya, or the "Shrine of John the Baptist". 

The mausoleum consists of a portico (porch leading to the entrance of a building) and a square building. The building behind the portico includes two chambers - the main hall in the western (right) chamber and a smaller chamber on the east (left) side. A staircase on the eastern chamber leads up to the roof of the building and it seems probable that a second storey or a parapet wall once stood there.

In the western chamber there is a cenotaph and on the south wall a mihrab (Muslim prayer niche). The Muslim prayer niches are on south walls since they are oriented toward Mecca. The niche was added in a later period and covered with red plaster. It converted the Roman structure to a shrine.

Inside the eastern chamber is a columbarium with several dozen square holes. The holes were used to store urns with the cremated remains of the deceased, probably the ashes of servants of the mausoleum's owner. The word 'columbarium' is based on the Latin word columba (pigeon), as it was originally used for a place to house doves and pigeons. Since these storage places looked like the pigeon holes, these type of burial sites were also named columbarium.

There are many burial caves and cisterns around the mausoleum, below.

Due to its sacredness the building, which functioned as a mosque until the depopulation of the Arab village Al-Muzayri'a in 1948, was preserved through the ages. In July 1949, Israel decided to raze the mausoleum, after the Israeli army had used the building for target practice. Fortunately an antiquities inspector managed to stop the destruction.

You can combine a short visit to the mausoleum with a hike in the nearby Kula forest. Quleh was an Arab village in Mandatory Palestine. Its name may have been derived from the Turkish word for tower, kula. The village was depopulated during the 1948 War of Independence and the forest now exists where the village once was. You can see some old Arab homes that used to stand there between the trees and visit the remains of a Crusader fortress in the western section of the forest.

Due to its strategic location between the mountains and the sea, the area where the forest now stands was once an important stopover for merchants who were transporting goods between Egypt and Syria. During the 12th century the Hospitallers established an administrative and collection centre in the village, comprising a tower and a vaulted structure. In 1596, Quleh was part of the Ottoman Empire, with an estimated population of 380 Muslim households. The villagers paid taxes on goats and beehives, and a press that was used for processing either olives or grapes. In 1870 Quleh had a population of 159, though the population count included men only.

The village expanded during the British mandate period. In the centre was the mosque, several small shops and a school which by the mid-1940s had 134 students. 1945 statistics show that the population of the village had grown to 1,010, all Muslim. Land was used for cereals and for orchards.

During the 1948 War of Independence the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Arab Legion's forces fought over the village. The IDF's Alexandroni Brigade had been sent to secure the area south of the Iraqi Army's zone of control. They captured the village for the last time on the 18th July, losing 28* members of the brigade in the process. A monument with the names of the fallen engraved on it is located on top of a hill in the forest and if you look down below, you can see the remains of trenches the fighters used during the battles. The forest is also known as the Forest of the Kaf Het (28 in gematria), in memory of these fallen soldiers.

Most of the villagers of Quleh fled during the war. The rubble of crumbled houses and terraces now lie among the cypress, eucalyptus and pistachio trees. Cactuses, fig and mulberry grow there as well. The only remaining landmarks are the Hospitallers tower and the ruined administrative building. At the foot of the administrative building is a prominent cave that served as a cistern and 50 metres away is an ancient Byzantine storage pool, the Tzarta pool. The pool has a stone floor and was built on the remains of an abandoned quarry. It fills up with rainwater in the winter and is covered with white water buttercups. Inside the clean water you can find crabs and other crustaceans that need to find a new home each summer.

Of course there are lots of interesting animals in the forest too, like gazelles, foxes and porcupines. The forest is also right under the path migrating birds take on their way to Africa. In the spring the area is filled with cyclamens, lupins, anemones and lots of other seasonal flowers.

* There is uncertainty as to the exact number of those who fell in battle. According to the Alexandroni Brigade's website, 29 of the Brigade's fighters were killed. There are 31 fallen soldiers listed on the monument and there may have been one more. The forest planted in memory of the fallen soldiers is called the Forest of the Kaf Het (28).

** This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Sharon's Souvenirs, Our World Tuesday, Tuesday's Treasures, Pictorial Tuesday, Travel Tuesday and My Corner of the World.