MOUNT CARMEL. - A chain of hills (Heb. karmel "orchard," "garden"; Arab. Gebel Karmel or Gebel Mär Eljas), of predominantly limestone formation, which, breaking away from the central mountain system of Palestine toward Jenin, from southeast to Sahel
'Arrābeh, extends toward the northwest, leaving the plain of Esdrelon to the southeast, and ends in a promontory that overlooks the sea to the south of the bay of St. John of Acre. It measures 30 km. in length and from 12 to 16 in width, remaining at an average height of 500 m. ('Esfijā, 536; el-Muḥraqah, 514). The chain marks the boundary between Galilee and Samaria.
Furrowed by frequent valleys, pierced by numerous caves that were a safe refuge for the persecuted (Am. 9:2-3) and with its slopes clothed in rich vegetation, the C. is often recalled in Sacred Scripture as a symbol of grace and prosperity for its fruitfulness, or as a symbol of desolation for its deforestation (Is. 33:9; Jer. 4:26; 50:19; Am. 1:2).
The Phoenicians were its first inhabitants, as the archaeological remains of the cities around the mountain attest. In the partition of the Promised Land it came to lie in the midst of the territory of the tribes of Asher, Zebulun and Issachar (Jos. 19:26). In the 9th century B.C. it is famous as a place of worship of the Phoenician religion and of the monotheistic Jewish religion. On one of its flat summits (el-Muḥraqah, 514) the sacrifice of the prophet Elijah remained immortalized (I Kings 18:19-46). In vain the priests of Baal invoked fire from on high to burn the victim placed on the altar; whereas at Elijah's prayer the holocaust was completed on the altar erected on 12 stones.
The God of the Israelites had a permanent cult there: the new moon and the sabbath were celebrated there, and the prophet Elisha dwelt there (II Kings 4:23).
The place is venerated by Christians, Jews and Muslims. The Carmelites have there a small church with a convent and the Muslims the mosque el-Qurbān. The Phoenician occupation of the mountain is evident from the name vafa qudatu (= "the holy head"), which the lists of Tuthmosis III (1479 B.C.) apply to the promontory of the C. The cult of the Baal of the mountain is also attested in the periplus of Scylas (4th century B.C.), where the C. is noted as "mountain sacred to Zeus" with all the characteristics of the Phoenician Baal. According to Iamblichus (4th century A.D.), the biographer of Pythagoras, the philosopher had gone to the C., "a mountain sacred and inaccessible to the profane" (Vita Pyth., III, 14), and Tacitus (Hist., II, 28) states that "the god C. has neither statue nor temple, but, in accordance with the prescriptions of the elders, only an altar and worshipers." Vespasian went there to consult the oracle, and the priest Basilides, having examined the entrails of the victim, gave him a favorable response (Pliny, Nat. hist., II, 17).
At the rise of Christianity it became a favored place for monks and hermits. The Anonymous Pilgrim of Piacenza in 570 describes the monastery of St. Elisha, whose remains were identified to the west of the lighthouse in 1913. The monastery destroyed by Persian fury (614) was succeeded by the mosque So'ad ed-Dazdah, which furnished the material for the Templars for the construction of a fortress clearly visible from the sea. A map of 1235 marks there "S. Margaretha castellum" and nearby a church of St. Margaret which Sanudo says was officiated by Greek monks. On the ruins of this Greek monastery there arose in the 17th century the sanctuary of Our Lady of the C., with the great convent of the Carmelites on an esplanade 50 m. high, from which one can enjoy the spectacle of a vast and varied panorama.
Bibliography2 works
Donato Baldi