CARMEL. - A chain of hills (Hebr. karmel "orchard," "garden"; Arab. Gebel Karmel or Gebel Már Eljas), predominantly of limestone formation, which, detaching from the central mountain system of Palestine toward Genin, extends from southeast to Sahel ‘Arrabéh, continuing northwest. It leaves the Plain of Esdraelon to the southeast and terminates in a promontory overlooking the sea south of the bay of St. John of Acre. It measures 30 km in length and from 12 to 16 km in width, maintaining an average elevation of 500 m (Esfijá, 536; el-Muhraqah, 514). The chain marks the boundary between Galilee and Samaria.
Riven by frequent valleys and pierced by numerous caves that served as safe refuge for the persecuted (Am. 9:2-3), with its slopes clothed in rich vegetation, Carmel is often recalled in Holy Scripture as a symbol of grace and prosperity for its fertility, or as a symbol of desolation for its deforestation (Is. 33:9; Jer. 4:26; 50:19; Am. 1:2).
The Phoenicians were its earliest inhabitants, as attested by archaeological remains around the mountain. In the division of the Promised Land, it lay within the territory of the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Issachar (Jos. 19:26). In the 9th century B.C., it became renowned as a place of worship for both Phoenician and Jewish monotheistic religion. On one of its level summits (el-Muhraqah, 514), the sacrifice of the prophet Elijah was immortalized (1 Kgs. 18:19-46). In vain did the priests of Baal invoke fire from heaven to consume the victim upon the altar; whereas at Elijah’s prayer, the holocaust was entirely consumed upon the altar built of twelve stones.
The God of Israel had permanent worship there: the new moon and the Sabbath were celebrated, and the prophet Elisha dwelt there (2 Kgs. 4:23).
The site is venerated by Christians, Jews, and Muslims. The Carmelites have a small church with a convent, and the Muslims have the el-Qurbân mosque.
The Phoenician occupation of the mountain is evident from the name rašu qadašu (= "the holy head"), which the lists of Thutmose III (1479 B.C.) apply to the promontory of Carmel. The worship of Baal of the mountain is also attested in the periplus of Scylax (4th century B.C.), where Carmel is noted as "a sacred mountain 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 Carmel, "a sacred and inaccessible mountain to the profane" (Vita Pyth., III, 14), and Tacitus (Hist., II, 28) states that "the god of Carmel has no statue or temple, but, in accordance with the prescriptions of the elders, only an altar and worshippers." 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).
With the rise of Christianity, it became a favored place for monks and hermits. The Anonymous of Piacenza in 570 describes the monastery of St. Elisha, whose remains were identified west of the lighthouse in 1913. After the monastery was destroyed by Persian fury in 614, the Sa’ad ed-Daelah mosque succeeded it, providing material for the Templars to build a fortress clearly visible from the sea. A geographical map of 1235 marks St. Margaret’s there, and nearby a church of St. Margaret, which Sanudo says was served by Greek monks. On the ruins of this Greek monastery arose in the 17th century the sanctuary of Our Lady of Carmel, with the large convent of the Carmelites on a platform 50 m high, from which one can enjoy a vast and varied panorama.