| Lake Ram | |
|---|---|
 View with the loftyMount Hermon beyond | |
  Lake Ram | |
| Location | Golan Heights |
| Coordinates | 33°13′57.1″N35°45′58.8″E / 33.232528°N 35.766333°E /33.232528; 35.766333 |
| Type | Crater lake (maar) |
| Primary inflows | Precipitation,underground springs |
| Basin countries | Israel (de facto),Syria |
Lake Ram (Arabic:بحيرة مسعدة,romanized: Buhairat Mas'ade,lit. 'Lake of Mas'ade' and Birkat el-Ram.Hebrew:בריכת רם,romanized: Brekhat Ram) is acrater lake (maar)[1] in the northeasternGolan Heights near the village ofMas'ade andMount Hermon.
Josephus referred to it as Lake Phiala.[2] The sources of the lake are rain water and an underground spring. The lake has no outlet. It is known in Hebrew as "Brekhat Ram" (also written Berekhat Ram), meaning high pool.[3] It is also called Birket Ram,[3] using the Arabic word for pond. The area is inhabited by theDruze community.[4]
Many geologists believe that the lake formed inside the crater of an extinct volcano.[4]
During excavations evidence was discovered ofPalaeolithic human and hominid activity. Most notably, excavation led to the discovery of theVenus of Berekhat Ram, a pebble allegedly worked byHomo erectus. The artefact has been claimed to be the oldest known example of representational art in the world.[5] The pebble was found in a context datable to at least 230,000 years before present time, thus to the earlyMiddle Palaeolithic. The claim that it is the earliest manifestation of human art is contested on multiple grounds (see article).
The site has been excavated for evidence of human activity during its history. Research onlacustrine sediments at the site concluded that the area has been heavily settled four times over history, first during the early Bronze Age, secondly during the Hellenistic and Roman–Byzantine periods, thirdly during the period of medieval Crusader rule, and finally in modern times. Between these periods the area became overgrown as local woodland regenerated, evidencing phases of low human occupation.[5]
According to TheTalmud,Sanhedrin 108a, Brekhat Ram is one of three underground springs, along withHamat Gader in the southeastern Golan Heights andHamat Tiberias, that opened up in theFlood ofNoah and did not close up again after the flood.[6]
In a local Druze legend the lake is the "eye" of the "sheikh's wife", the name for a hill nearby. Mount Hermon (in ArabicJabal al-Shaykh, "Mountain of the Sheikh"), referred to as the sheikh himself, is supposed to have been separated from the "wife", whereupon her eye filled with tears.[4]
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