We’ve been having a winter, here in Israel, where winter is expected to break out in mid-November and conclude in early January. But it hasn’t been concluded yet, and, in fact, according to the Meteorological Service forecast, there is concern of flooding in the eastern and southern parts of the country.
The beautiful rainbow you see above was sent to us by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (credit: Ella Mossayev) from Crocodile Stream, which pours into the Mediterranean sea at the very southern limit of Mount Carmel, north of Caesarea.
The river is named for the crocodiles that inhabited the nearby Kebara swamps until the early 20th century. The last recorded sighting of a crocodile there was in 1912.
The remains of Crocodilopolis, a city established there in the fourth century BCE, are still visible today. The city was established in the Hellenistic era, in the 4th century BCE, and continued to exist—despite the crocodiles—until the end of the Byzantine period.