Yarkon Park

The Yarkon Afek National Park is located in Israel at the headwaters of the Yarkon and is a popular recreation destination with several historical and archaeological sites.

Building

"Concrete House" and " Stone House "

Here is the first reinforced concrete building is located in Palestine, which was built in 1912 and in which up to the 1970s, a pumping station was operated. Another building is the "Stone House", the ruins of a plantation owner villa with standing next to the pump house. Directly on the Yarkon located farms and plantations had since the Ottoman rule, the right to take water for irrigation directly from the river. Overall existed along the Yarkon 18 pumping stations like this in the " Stone House ".

Kasar farm

The Kasar farm consists only in its foundations. It is named after Salim Kasar from Jaffa, who here at the Yarkon operated a sugar cane and citrus plantation in the 19th century. The farm buildings was a pumping station that encourages a Göpelrad and a scoop chain groundwater in a supernatural basin, and was passed from there through channels in the plantations. 1895 sold Kasar economically unsuccessful farm to Baron Rothschild, who represented the residents of Petach Tikva available. The new operator transformed the farm into an experimental farm for the further development of seeds.

Al -Mir - mill

Near the Kasar farm are the remains of Al -Me- corn mill that was built during the Roman period and up to the Ottoman period was in operation. The elongated building had a large vaulted ceiling, under each arch were two millstones housed. In its heyday, the mill millstone were 13 couples in operation. Probably gave an extension of the building beyond the Yarkon, so that the mill served as a bridge across the river. The water for the Mühlbetrieb was further upstream dammed and brought up in ducts. The name al -Mir, the mill from a small village that once existed nearby.

Tel Afek

In addition to the Yarkonquelle is Tel Afek, an ancient settlement mound with a fortress from the Ottoman era, which controlled the transition from the coastal plain to the Judean hills and the ancient Via Maris highway from Egypt to the north. Excavations have brought to light settlement remains dating back to the fourth millennium BC. As early as the third millennium BC the settlement had a municipal structure and a fortification wall. At the time of the Judges Tel Afek was a base of the Philistines in battle against Israel, during which the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant. However, Tel Afek is not identical to the camp of the Philistines died in the battle in which King Saul and his sons; the camp was at En Afek in northern Israel.

Herod the Great built here in the first century BC the city Antipatris, named after his father. Later Antipatris seat of a bishop. From this time a Roman Cardo is exposed and can be visited. After the Roman period Tel Afek gradually lost its importance as a place of residence, the military and strategic importance but kept it at. So the fortress Pinar Basi was (Eng. " main source" ) built on the foundations of Antipatris in the Ottoman period. The ruins of this fortress dominates to this day the valley.

Fauna and Flora

In a man-made pond adjacent to Al -Me- mill, which is fed by Jarkonwasser, Tel Aviv University operates together with the INPA a resettlement project for Acanthobrama telavivensis. This fish was once widespread in the Israeli coastal rivers. Today the fish is almost extinct due to water pollution and water shortage. In the pool of fish is protected from natural enemies and can propagate in a natural environment. In the river itself, the fish can not reproduce at present, the pond is used for research into the causes, with the goal of a successful reintroduction of the fish.

In the spring pool and ponds above the regulatory dam grows the yellow pond lily. Further downriver, there are also the blue water-lily and pondweed. Since these plants are sensitive to water pollution, the pond rose fields are an indication of the high water quality successfully restored. Along the bank prosper the cattails and reeds, papyrus Genuine and various Rubus plants. In the immediate vicinity of rivers are willows and eucalyptus forests, where blooms among other things, the Ordinary loosestrife.