Mount Carmel

mountain ridge, Israel

Mount Carmel, Hebrew Har Ha-karmel, mountain range,

northwestern Israel; the city of Haifa is on its northeastern slope. It
divides the Plain of Esdraelon (ʿEmeq Yizreʿel) and the Galilee (east
and north) from the coastal Plain of Sharon (south). A northwest–
southeast-trending limestone ridge, about 16 mi (26 km) long, it
covers an area of about 95 sq mi (245 sq km). Its seaward point, Rosh
ha-Karmel (Cape Carmel), almost reaches the Mediterranean; there
the coastal plain is only 600 ft (180 m) wide. The mountain’s highest
point, 1,791 ft above sea level, is northwest of the village of ʿIsfiyā. The
name, dating back to biblical times, is derived from the
Hebrew kerem (“vineyard” or “orchard”) and attests to the mountain’s
fertility even in ancient times.

Nahal Meʿarot in the Mount Carmel mountain range, Israel.

Doron Horovitz/© The State of Israel Government Press Office
Sanctified since early times, Mt. Carmel is mentioned as a “holy
mountain” in Egyptian records of the 16th century BC. As a “high
place,” it was long a centre of idol worship, and its outstanding
reference in the Bible is as the scene of Elijah’s confrontation with the
false prophets of Baal (I Kings 18). Mt. Carmel was also sacred to the
early Christians; individual hermits settled there as early as the 6th
century AD. The Carmelites, a Roman Catholic monastic order, were
founded in 1150; they received their first rule, or laws and regulations
governing the conduct of their order, in 1206–14. Their monastery
(rebuilt 1828) is near the traditional site of Elijah’s miracle.

There are many fine parks and woods on the slopes of the mountain,
both within the city of Haifa and outside it. Much of the wooded area
is included in the Carmel Nature Reserve. On the southwest slopes are
caves where archaeologists found (1931–32) Stone Age human
skeletons of a type previously unknown.

Source” https://www.britannica.com/place/Mount-Carmel-mountain-ridge-Israel