ISRAEL - Jacob's Ford . מצד עתרת (מעבורות יעקב) скачать в хорошем качестве

ISRAEL - Jacob's Ford . מצד עתרת (מעבורות יעקב)

Jacob's Ford, Here is one of the safest places to cross the Jordan river, and traditionally this is the biblical site, where the patriarch Jacob, crossed the river to meet his brother Esau. In the year 1179, the Crusaders started to build a fortress here in order disrupt an invasion by the Muslim armies of Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt. Saladin, offered the crusaders a bribe of a 100,000 dinars, thinking that they would take the money and stop the construction work. However, the Crusaders refused the offer, and so before the fort was fully completed, they were attacked and greatly outnumbered by Saladin's army. The Crusaders made a last stand, fought bravely, but were ultimately defeated. After the battle, Saladin's men gathered an enormous amount of plunder and then they destroyed the fortress walls. Some 800 of the dead Crusaders, along with their horses and mules, were thrown into a water cistern. Some 700 of them were taken captive. Due to the decomposing corpses, a plague had broken out, claiming the life of some of Saladin's officers and men. The area was cursed and abandoned, and very soon became forgotten. Only lately, excavations of the site and the skeletons have revealed what took place here. The Bridge: kfar Hanassi (President's Village) is a Kibbutz named after Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first President.