عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Massive Basalt Rocks Discovered in Occupied Golan Heights

A general view of the mountains in the Golan Heights | Photo: AFP
A general view of the mountains in the Golan Heights | Photo: AFP
    Golan, London- Asharq Al-Awsat
TT
TT

Massive Basalt Rocks Discovered in Occupied Golan Heights

A general view of the mountains in the Golan Heights | Photo: AFP
A general view of the mountains in the Golan Heights | Photo: AFP

A new insight into an enigmatic culture that thrived thousands of years ago has been discovered recently by chance in the occupied Golan Heights. The megalithic structure is composed of huge basalt boulders known as dolmens. They were used as burial tombs some 4,000-4,500 years ago in the Intermediate Bronze Era, and form a small roofed chamber that opens to the east.

According to AFP, the identity and beliefs of those who built the monuments remain largely unknown, but a recent finding of rock art might change that.

"About two years ago, when one of the rangers here in the park walked her daily walk, she looked inside and saw something carved in the walls. The ranger contacted the Antiquities Authority, and when we looked inside we saw this is not just lines carved or some stains on the wall, this is rock art," recalled Uri Berger, an archaeologist with the Antiquities Authority.

The lines form the shapes of six horned animals of varying sizes, three facing east and three facing west, with two of them -- likely a male and female -- directly facing each other.

Another horned animal is carved into the interior of one panel, facing the other six. The zoomorphic depictions, hidden in plain sight since study of the dolmens began 200 years ago, were the first to be discovered in the region and a major development for Berger and his research partner, archaeology professor Gonen Sharon.

Sharon, an archeology professor at the Tel Hai University, had previously made another important discovery in the region, when he was hiking with his children in 2012 on a field in the northern Galilee with some 400 dolmens spread across it.

One of the sites explored by the archeologists was inside an industrial zone near Kiryat Shmona, where three small megalithic structures that survived the zone's development are surrounded by circles of stones. On the relatively rounded capstone of the largest dolmen there, two sets of short parallel lines are carved into each side of the rock, with a longer line carved below, creating the image of closed eyes and a grimacing mouth facing the sky.

"To us they look like a face," said Sharon.

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

Warm Clothing, Hot Pot and Even Ice Cream Bars Feature at China’s Ice Capital

Visitors tour by the ice structures during the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang province on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
Visitors tour by the ice structures during the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang province on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
TT
TT

Warm Clothing, Hot Pot and Even Ice Cream Bars Feature at China’s Ice Capital

Visitors tour by the ice structures during the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang province on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
Visitors tour by the ice structures during the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang province on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)

Faced with temperatures dipping to -30 Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit), visitors to China's wintertime resort city of Harbin often make a beeline for stalls selling padded clothing to augment their wardrobes.

Oddly perhaps for some, frozen ice cream bars are also considered a key part of the visit.

Each winter, the industrial city in China's northeast turns into a magnet for those from China's balmier regions wanting to experience the extreme cold and take in the sculptures built from ice blocks carved from the Songhua River, which freezes from late October to late March.

“I searched for tips on the internet and am now wearing knitted wool pants and the thickest sweater possible,” said Jin Yiting, who was visiting with her parents from the financial hub of Shanghai, where a light jacket is usually sufficient winter garb.

Jin Yanlong runs a stall selling winter hats, gloves and boots in the park. He said that most of his customers are tourists from southern China who underestimate the frigid weather in Harbin.

“Some of the tourists wear ‘too thin.’ They come here immediately from the airport. They would find us to buy warm trousers padded with cotton,” Jin said.

Despite the freezing weather, some curious tourists are brave enough to taste the cold itself. Zhuang Chang and his friend enjoyed their Madie’er ice cream bars while strolling on a commercial street whose architecture reflects the Russian influence on the city. The brand was established in 1900s by a Russian company and has steadily grown in popularity among tourists.

“It’s cold, but my heart is warm,” Zhuang said. He also compared the humid cold months of his hometown in Zhejiang province, where “people would be frozen to the core when being hit by wind.”

“But here only my hands and face feel cold,” Zhuang said.

For those seeking a warmer alternative, there are hot drinks and steaming hot pot, a kind of stew mixing meat, vegetables, tofu and other favorites.

Restaurant owner Chi Xuewen claims to own the world's largest hot pot, where 18 individual pots featuring a variety of flavors circle the giant bowl.

“Eating anything in a hot pot makes people warm,” Chi said.

Li Long’s restaurant uses wood both to cook the food and warm the air in the ice block structure.

“The pot also radiates heat,” Li said. “Once the pot cover is lifted, customers see the hot food. In one word, it just feels hot.”

Prolonged cold has left local residents with few options for fresh vegetables, so frozen food has become an alternative. Frozen tofu left outside overnight becomes porous and is particularly good at soaking up soup and flavor, local resident Liu Xiaohui said.