Sde Telem - Enot Telem National Park

The Einot Telem National Park is part of the Jerusalem Metropolitan Park, looked after by the Israel

Nature and Parks Authority. The park conserves a landscape of tiny springs and ancient terraces, and a

local settlement site. A stone playground has recently been installed on the site, a tribute to childhood

games. Come for a stroll and to play. 

Main points of interest:

A one-of- a-kind stone playground 

Small springs and farming terraces 

Settlement site

Viewpoints

Lookout point from the terrace where the springs flow, above the settlement site

Israel Nature and Parks Authority activities to improve visitor services and preserve the site

The Authority has allocated a car park and a picnic area, as well as an accessible path for people with

disabilities and strollers, and a bicycle path. The bicycle path is part of the Jerusalem Metropolitan Park.

The Authority has also preserved the terraces and cleaned the springs.

How to get here:

From Jerusalem: At the Moza interchange (Route 1) turn towards Mevasseret Zion. Around 40 m after

the turning, turn right on a gravel road, and after around 600 m you will reach the site’s car park.

From Tel Aviv: Enter the Beit Zeit access road, but instead of turning right continue for around 450 m

parallel to Route 1 towards Mevasseret Zion. Go under the Route 1 bridge and turn immediately right

onto the gravel road.

Background

Einot Telem (Eiyon Tolma) is a group of tiny springs which flow where Nahal Luz (Wadi Luza) and Nahal

Halilim come down from the north and join Nahal Sorek. This part of Nahal Sorek is known by the name

of Emeq HaArazim. 

Einot Telem is a National Park, and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority has renovated the site: they

have cleaned the springs and the rock faces beneath them, and set up pools around these tiny springs.

When the work was going on at the site, the remains of the walls of ancient buildings were discovered,

whose foundations were probably laid in the Byzantine period. 

At the bottom of the steps there is a courtyard where pomegranate trees, fig trees and vines grow. An

old two-storey building stands in the courtyard next to a large reservoir (15x5 m). An underground canal

brings water from the spring beneath the structure into a small pool (4X5 m) which is around 1.5 m

deep.

Trip route

From the car park and the campsite you can take one of two trails: the upper or the lower. The upper

trail is the dirt track to Nahal Halilim. There are large rocks with information about the area set up along

the trail. Each rock presents information linked to either the rock before or the rock after it. For example,

one rock asks what the origin of the name Nahal Halilim is, and the following rock has the answer: the

origin of the name is the whistling of the wind blowing through the holes in the caves along the stream.

There are 35 such rocks spread along the stream. 

The upper trail reaches Einot Telem and joins the paved path for bikes, strollers and wheelchairs (the

lower trail). Along this trail there are giant stone versions of well-known childhood games. Families and

groups are welcome to roll up their sleeves, pick up their playing pieces (stones, of course) and start to

play. 

Some of the games are spread out across the area, and others are on a long games table with stone

stools. Next to the games, some of which are very old, are instructions on how to play, the rules of the

games and some explanations. For example, the explanation next to the draughts board reports that the

origin of the game was probably in Ur Kasdim, and that in Iraq a board has been found from the year

3000 BC. In Ancient Egypt, paintings from 1600 BC show an ancient version of draughts called El

Quran.

Participants can choose how to play: you can use people as playing pieces on the giant boards, or you

can use stones or anything else. Children will enjoy the games and adults will enjoy the childhood

memories they bring back. In the spring the experience also includes vegetable patches growing onions

and other bulbs, which the Israel Nature and Parks Authority has brought here from sites in the area

having work done to them. 

The development of the Sadeh Telem Park is part of the Jerusalam Park initiative, in which the

Jerusalem Municipality, the Jerusalem Development Authority, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority

and the KKL all participate. Work on the site and its maintenance are the responsibility of the Jerusalem

Development staff of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. 

The curator of the park is Avivit Gera. The design and sculptures were handmade by Yael and Ofer

Kotler, and Hedva Lahav is the games advisor.

Settlement site

The two-storey building at the site is a remnant of the small Hebrew settlement of Beit Tolma. In 1906

Aharon Eisenberg and chemist Dov Klimker bought a 230-dunam plot of land. Klimker thought that they

needed to make full use of the agricultural produce: after setting up an alcohol factory in Rishon LeZion,

he hoped that he would be able to produce lubricating oil from olive waste (the waste left over from lives

after oil has been extracted) at Beit Tolma. The factory, named Hermon, closed in 1911 due to lack of

economic viability. 

After this, a group of workers settled in the area. They nicknamed their village the ‘Cypress Valley’,

named after the trees planted there. At the time only few people could tell the botanical difference

between cypresses and cedar trees, and this is where the name ‘Cedar Valley’ came from. Members of

the group tried to make a living from farming, but their plan did not work and they left the site in 1919. 

In 1922 eight Jewish families from Jerusalem settled here. They made their living from handicrafts such

as making tefillin and shoes out of leather. The big pool next to the two-storey house was used in the

leather-tanning process, and long-time residents of Moza tell us that a bad smell came from the pool in

those days. One of the residents was the famous painter and calligrapher, Shlomo Yedidya. 

In the clashes of 1929, one of Beit Tolma’s Arab neighbours saved the residents from attacks by

marauders, but the village was then abandoned. Another attempt to settle it was made in 1934, but that

did not go well either. Today the site is part of the Jerusalem Park, and is being given a new lease of

life