Wadi al-Sarar – also known as the “Rubin River” – is one of the valleys on the western slopes of the historic mountains of Palestine, running between the Jerusalem area to the east and the Jaffa area to the west.
The Rubin River constitutes the lower course of this water resource, while Wadi al-Sarar constitutes its middle and upper course. Therefore, this double name was given due to the importance of each of them in the geography of Palestine.
Its waters flow into the Mediterranean Sea, and it connects the mountains of Jerusalem to the Palestinian coastal plain.
the site
The beginnings of Wadi Al-Sarar are located in the highlands north of Jerusalem. Its first reefs are formed in the area of the villages of Rafat, Bir Nabala, Al-Ram, and Beit Hanina, then they come together to form the main valley course, 2.5 kilometers northwest of Jerusalem.
The valley then emerges, digging its course towards the southwest within limestone-dolomitic and karstic (i.e. sedimentary) rocks, and receives a tributary to the left, Wadi Battir, and another to the right, Wadi Kassala.
The beginning of Wadi Al-Sarar is located at an altitude ranging between 700 and 750 meters above sea level, and the beginning of its tributaries is less than that.
After Wadi Kassala meets Wadi al-Sarar near the towns of Artuf, displaced since 1948, and Saraa, at a distance of 5 to 6 kilometers, it heads northwest to the foothills of the Jerusalem mountains.
The valley digs its course in this part and becomes wide and open until it enters the flat lands of the Palestinian coastal plain, whose height does not exceed 100 meters above sea level.
Geography and climatic characteristics
The Rubin-Al-Sarar River flows throughout the year and ends in the Mediterranean Sea, 14 kilometers south of the city of Jaffa, near the settlement of Palmachim and north of the port of Rubin.
The Rubin River penetrates a strip of sand and coastal dunes known as the Sands (and sometimes the Prince Plains), and thus it has covered a distance of 16 kilometers, all with temporary torrent flow in which water overflows after winter rains.
The slope of the valley is steep in the eastern mountainous areas of the Jerusalem Mountains and their western slopes, moderate at the foothills of the mountains, and weak in the coastal plain.
The area of the Rubin-Al-Sarar River basin is estimated at about 7.5 square kilometers in an area whose temperature ranges between an average of 16 degrees Celsius in the summer and 18 degrees Celsius in the winter.
Annual rainfall rises to 600 mm in the east and decreases to 500 mm in the west and the coastal plain.
Population density
The Rubin-Al-Sarar Basin is one of the densely populated areas. The density is high in the eastern parts and in the Jerusalem area and its western suburbs, and decreases relatively in the ancient hills, then rises again in the coastal plain area. The various villages and population centers are numerous and number in the dozens.
The region’s residents work in agriculture, especially grape and olive cultivation and livestock raising. Large numbers of Israeli settlements have spread in the western parts of the basin up to the borders of the sandbar.
historical location
The basin’s land is covered by a dense network of automobile roads and paths connecting population centers, and railway lines pass through the basin in different directions, because railways at that time depended on water sources. Many of the surveyors who planned the first railway in the Middle East, the Jaffa-Jerusalem line, decided to use Wadi al-Sarar as the main route for the line.
While the high-speed rail line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was designed to avoid the valley route and shorten the line, the old railway line along the valley has been renovated, and is still in use.
This line connects Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and runs in a west-east direction between Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion International Airport, Lod, Ramla, and Beit Shemesh, an Israeli city that means House of the Sun.
The railway line has become mainly used by tourists, as it passes through areas rich in stunning scenery, and there are several small water tanks along its route.
Al-Sarar Station and World War I
The Wadi al-Sarar station was mentioned in World War I, and the bottom line is that British General Edmund Allenby set in mind, in his advance towards Jerusalem, the necessity of seizing the Wadi al-Sarar station because it is the junction of the railway lines leading to Jerusalem, Jaffa, Beersheba, and Gaza.
The British armies advanced on November 12, 1917 and occupied the Al-Masmiya-Qatra line. Then they continued their advance in cooperation with the Armored Corps and were able to seize the station on November 14 after intense battles in which they clashed with the Ottomans.
Battle of Wadi al-Sarar
The Battle of Wadi al-Sarar took place in early April 1948, and Mujahideen from the village of Beit Mahsir participated in it, as well as in a number of battles outside their village.
Some accounts say that the martyr Hassan Salama decided to attack a large convoy of Jews that was heading to the west of Jerusalem, where the Mujahideen forces led by Abdul Qadir al-Husseini had imposed a cordon on another Jewish force numbering 100,000, and cut off their water.
These Jewish forces in Jerusalem were on the verge of surrender had it not been for the intervention of British forces and some Zionist organizations.
When the convoy arrived at the site, the forces of the martyr Hassan Salama closed in on it, inflicting heavy losses on it, and seized a large quantity of cars loaded with supplies and supplies, as well as large quantities of weapons and ammunition.
In April 1948, the occupation forces attacked and occupied the village of Deir Muhaisen. Since this village was located within the western sector of the central region extending from Jaffa to Wadi al-Sarar, Sheikh Hassan Salama sent a group of about 70 fighters, and a fierce battle took place during which the people of Beit Mahsir were able Reclaiming the village of Deir Muheisen, and restoring control of the Bab al-Wad road in front of convoys heading to Jerusalem.
Wadi Al-Sarar Nature Reserve
Wadi Al-Sarar Nature Reserve, which was first announced in 1965 and has since been expanded, extends over more than 11 thousand dunums (a dunum is equivalent to a thousand square metres) of the Cave of Candles Reserve.
The Cave of Candles is a cave located in Jerusalem on the western slopes of the Palestine mountains in the area of the natural village of Beit Surik, near Beit Shemesh to the “moshav” (a Hebrew term referring to an agricultural village in which families form economic units that manage their own plot of land).
