Wadi Ara

The ancient town of biblical fame, Megiddo, known from Revelation 16:16 as Armageddon, used to guard its northern exit during much of the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Approximately 1 km west of the Border Patrol intersection on Highway 65, the wadi opens into the Sharon plain, and becomes a tributary of the Hadera Stream, south of Talmei Elazar and north of Tel Zeror.

Wadi Ara is part of the ancient historical route Via Maris, connecting what is now the Israeli coastal plain with the Jezreel Valley and, in a wider sense, Egypt in the west with Syria and Mesopotamia in the east.

[2] In the Late Bronze Age, the Egyptian king, Thutmose III (r. 1479-1425 BC), used the route, then called Aruna, to surprise his enemies, and take control of Megiddo.

In March 1949, as the Jordanian army replaced the Iraqi forces, three Israeli brigades moved into positions in Operation Shin-Tav-Shin.

In return the Palestinian Authority would transfer specific large Israeli settlement "blocs" within the West Bank east of the Green Line to Israel.