Jubb Yussef (Joseph's Well)

Jubb Yussef (Arabic: جُبّ يُوسُف, Hebrew: גוב יוסף), also known as "Joseph's Well" in English, is an archaeological site in Ramat Korazim in Galilee, Israel.

It is believed by Muslims to be the site of the pit into which Yusuf (Joseph), a figure which is part of both the Biblical and Quranic narratives, was thrown by his brothers.

Jubb Yussef is located near Ami'ad in the Galilee, altitude 246 meters, at the western side of a rocky hill (datum point 2006.2583).

According to the biblical story (Genesis 37:12–23), Joseph was sent from Hebron by his father Jacob, to his brothers who tended sheep in Shechem (Tell Balata near Nablus).

Unlike Gaza, which was located on the main coastal road and near the seashore, Safed was a mountain city, which served as the capital of a district - the Mamlakat Safad.

[5][6] The first detailed account of Jubb Yussef and the khan comes from the Italian traveller Aquilante Rocchetta in 1599, who describes a quadrangle with a water pit in its centre.

Napoleon learned that Turkish units were crossing the Bnot Yaakov Bridge (Jisr Ya’aqub in Arabic) on their way from Damascus to Safed and sent an army under the command of General Mira to the area.

Units of the "geographical engineering corps" under the command of M. Jacotin were sent together with the French army, and this is the source of the first modern maps of the country.

General Mira led his troops to Safed through Ramah, Kafr 'Inan, Ramat Pishchor (near the current day hospital) – and not through Jubb Yussef, so that the mapping of the area is not perfect, but still of interest.

In the Jacoutin's map, which was drawn during this journey, Jubb Yussef ("Puits de Joseph") is noted as a crossroads.

We left the town early in the morning, and descended the side of the mountain towards the lake; here the ground is for the greater part uncultivated and without trees.

I was told that the bottom is hewn in the rock: its sides were well lined with masonry as far as I could see into it, and the water never dries up, a circumstance which makes it difficult to believe that this was the well into which Joseph was thrown.

Joseph's well is held in veneration by Turks as well as Christians; the former have a small chapel just by it, and caravan travellers seldom pass here without saying a few prayers in honour of Yousef.

Burckhardt is not the only one to mention this fact, and we can assume that this was the case at least until the year 1837, the time of the great earthquake of Safed which probably caused the collapse of the well.

The aforementioned Maghrebi soldiers were part of the North African mercenary army, which Jazzar and Suleiman brought to the country to protect their reign.

The many travellers which had been in the area in the 19th century often mention Jubb Yussef, but they usually do not add details beyond the comprehensive account by Burckhardt, which is often quoted in their writings.

[citation needed] The assertion of the archaeologists at the time, that the khan was in "very good condition" – despite its west wing already lying in ruins – is relative.

A rectangular courtyard of about half a dunam is adjacent to the eastern wing of the khan, which apparently served as a sheepfold at a later period.

[citation needed] The khan has been described as being in a state of ruin for almost 200 years, and it seems that it has survived in part only due to its solid construction.

This is impressive considering the "dry" construction of the khan (i.e., no mortar to bind the blocks together), and its location in the Jordan Rift Valley, an area prone to earthquakes.

Despite the fact that the road from Safed to Damascus passes through Jubb Yussef, Abu Jian, who accompanied Qaitbay and describes their journeys, does not mention the khan, even though it had been in existence for 5 years at that time.

[10] In Baron Taylor's drawing, which dates two years after the quake of 1837, the khan appears with its second floor intact and the cistern is still surrounded by a wall.

This could explain the almost complete disappearance of the courtyard that surrounded Jubb Yussef for hundreds of years and which was about 60 metres away from the enclosure.

Whenever the reigning government was stronger and more centralised, it required more transportation and communications routes, in order to transfer armies and for commerce.

In order to fulfill the requirements of the official messengers, horses were being confiscated, which were returned to their owners 10 days later, or not at all - an injustice to the local population.

Following the complaint, it was decided to station three horses at each of the khans: Sasa, Quneitra, Bnot Yaacov Bridge, Minya, Lajjun, Qaqun, Ras al-Ayn, Gaza and El Arish.

Only the oak remains, because the grave, which had never been especially grand, served at the time of the establishment of Amiad as a hill for gathering stones from the fields.

It is difficult to tell for sure whether this settlement was established by the crusaders at the end of their sovereignty of this part of the Galilee, or whether it was built by the Mamluks at the onset of their power.

Thousands of citizens and defenders that inhabited the fortress were slaughtered after surrendering their weapons, mistakenly believing their enemy's promise that if they did so, they would be peacefully evicted to Tyre.

Burckhardt describes Jubb Yussef (or Dothan, as it appears in his writings) at this time as a fine-looking town, full of vines, fig and olive trees and pastures.