Mount Tabor, sometimes spelled Mount Thabor (Hebrew: הר תבור, romanized: Har Tavor; Arabic: جبل طابور), is a large hill of biblical significance in Lower Galilee, northern Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, 18 kilometres (11 miles) west of the Sea of Galilee.

[2] In the Greek Septuagint's translation of the Book of Jeremiah,[3] the name Itabyrium (Ἰταβύριον, Itabýrion) was used for Mount Tabor.

[5] It was the namesake of Tabor Light in Christian theology, of the Czech sect of the Taborites, and of numerous other settlements and institutions.

Its location on the road junction and its bulgy formation above its environment gave Mount Tabor a strategic value and wars were conducted in its area in different periods in history.

According to the Book of Judges, Hazor was the seat of Jabin, the king of Canaan, whose commander, Sisera, led a Canaanite army against the Israelites.

In the Second Temple period (c. 516 BCE – 70 CE), Mount Tabor was one of the mountain peaks on which it was the custom to light beacons in order to inform the northern villages of Jewish holy days and of the beginning of new months.

[citation needed] In 55 BCE, during a Hasmonean rebellion against the Roman proconsul of Syria, Aulus Gabinius, Alexander of Judaea and his army of 30,000 Judeans was defeated in battle at Mount Tabor.

[8] In 66 CE, during the First Jewish-Roman War, the Galilean Jews retrenched on the mountain under the command of Yosef Ben Matityahu, better known as Josephus Flavius, the later historian, whence they defended themselves against the Roman assault.

[citation needed] In 1799, during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte's Syrian expedition, in the valley between Mount Tabor and the Hill of Moreh, the Battle of Mount Tabor was fought in which a French force of about 3,000 soldiers under the command of Napoleon and general Kléber won against an Ottoman force of about 35,000 soldiers.

Many tribes in the region, like Arab-Al Hieb, began their military cooperation with the Jewish underground forces before the establishment of the state, in the late 1930s.

[citation needed] In April each year, the Lower Galilee Regional Council holds a 12-kilometre race around Mount Tabor in memory of Yitzhak Sadeh, the first commander of the Palmach, one of the founders of the Israel Defense Forces at the time of the establishment of the State and a promoter of mass sport.

The construction was started by a Romanian monk, Irinarh Rosetti, in 1859, the year of his death, and finished by his disciple, Nectarie Banul, in 1862.

[citation needed] The ruins of the al-Tujjar Caravansarai are located on the slopes of Mount Tabor, opposite the entrance to Beit Keshet.

"[14] Mount Tabor was covered with vegetation typical of northern Ancient Israel until the reign of the Ottoman Empire, during which period most of the trees were felled.

[15] As part of the Jewish National Fund's efforts to recreate the landscapes of the country, during the 1960s and 1970s the area was reforested with trees which are similar to its original vegetation.

Up to 400 plant species have been found on the Mount including large yellow crocuses (Sternbergia clusiana), the Persian lily (Fritillaria persica) rain-bells flowers (Muscari parviflorum), black-eyed red tulips (Tulipa agenensis), orchids, irises (including Iris haynei) and yellow asphodel (Asphodeline Lutea), spontaneous barley (Hordeum spontaneum), Mt.

[15] The woodland vegetation provides a habitat for wolves and jackals, foxes, porcupines, hyraxes, mongooses and the broad-toothed field mouse (Apodemus mysticanus).

The woodland is also a good habitat for various birds including jays (Garrulus), Syrian woodpeckers (Dendrocopos syriacus), Sardinian warblers (Sylvia melanocephala), Eurasian hobbies (Falco subbuteo), great tits (Parus major), great spotted cuckoos (Clamator glandarius) and snake eagles (Circaetus).