Talk:Nahal Taninim

Since Nahal HaYarden is generally translated as The Jordan River, and the same can be said for Nahal haYarkon, Nahal Kishon, etc, I think that regardless of the quantity of water flowing in Nahal Taninim, its name should still be translated as the Taninim River.--Sreifa01 (talk) 12:00, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

The Jordan River is not Nahal HaYarden, but Nehar HaYarden. As I wrote on my talk page, I believe the Hebrew term "nahal" should be preserved here, since not all "nehalim" are active streams. Some are brooks, and in some cases, such as the Yarkon, the common collocation is "river." In addition, nahal is the term that generally appears in the sources. --Geewhiz (talk) 12:47, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Crocodiles

To editor Arminden: Richard Pococke mentioned crocodiles in the mid-18th century. Later, here is the account of Abbe Mariti, Travels (1792), vol 1, p394 :

Six miles beyond Tantur is the Nahr-Eltemasieh, or the river of crocodiles, became famous by a mistake of some historians who never visited this part of the country. Deceived by the name, they have asserted that the Nahr-Eltemasieh contains a prodigious number of crocodiles, of an immense size, and such as are not to be seen in Egypt. This account, however, is far from being accurate: there are, indeed, a few crocodiles in this river, but they are all of the smallest species. There was formerly on the banks of the Nahr-Eltemasieh a city called Crocodilon, which was destroyed in the time of Pliny. It is much to be regretted that this writer did not give an account of it. In the neighbourhood stand a few huts, forming a kind of village, to which the Arabs give the name of Zerca.

Conder, Tent Work in Palestine (1879), vol 1, p201 :

This stream has been known from the time of Strabo and Pliny as the Crocodile River, and in it the crocodile still exists, being, according to general native evidence, unknown in any other stream in Palestine.

Interesting that we have an extra name "Nahr el-Temasieh". I see an echo in Murray's Handbook of 1858:

In 50 min. we ford Nahr Zurka, the Crocodile River of Strabo and Pliny, and still sometimes called by natives Maat Temsah. A kind of tradition seems to linger about the stream that crocodiles are found here.

I also see "Wadi Tamasih" in another place. The PEF Quarterly Report for 1893 has an eye-witness account of a crocodile caught and eaten. That's the most recent I could find. The report says there were eggs too, and that its hide was put on display in the PEF office in Jerusalem. I'm confident this is the same case placed in the early 20th century by the very weak source. Zero^talk 04:37, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

I found that there is an article on crocodiles in the 1920 PEF Quarterly report. I'll have a copy in a few days. Zero^talk 05:55, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

I looked quite hard for hippopotami and found nothing. I agree with you that it is exceedingly unlikely. Scientific papers on the subject, like this one don't suggest any hippos in the Levant since the early Iron Age. Zero^talk 05:31, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

---

Hi, and thanks as always. Last night I was too tired to remember what I already knew. John "Rob Roy" MacGregor, the Scottish canoe maniac, seemed quite fixated on the topic and has intensely looked for crocodiles on the Kishon, Belus, Yarkon and even Jordan. See "The Rob Roy on the Jordan", London 1869:

This was the skeleton of a crocodile, about ten feet long, which a person known to Mr. Zeller had killed, three months before, in the river Zerka, which flows into the Mediterranean not far from Caesarea. Old authors have called that the " Crocodile River," and near it are the ruins of the " City of Crocodiles." Arabs of the vicinity have long persisted in stating that the " Timsah " is still found there ; and recent authors have written that they had seen men who had seen crocodiles in the Zerka." But here we had the actual specimen itself, so all doubt is now removed. [17] --> [17] Mr. Zeller brought it to England, and it was exhibited in October, 1869, at the Free Museum and Library in Liverpool, and Mr. Zeller kindly promised to present this unique specimen to the Museum of the Palestine Exploration Fund.[...] (p. 432-33)

More on p. 443-447 (Kishon; with ill.), 450 (Belus/Na'aman), 451 (Aujeh/Yarkon), 451-52 (Jordan).

I think to remember that the Schmidt School in (E) Jerusalem had a collection of stuffed animals from its hunting founders, including a crocodile, and that they were persuaded a few years ago to give it to a Tel Aviv museum to be taken care of.

Edward J. Thompson wrote an article [1] in 1920 and came up with a theory about how the crocs can swim from river mouth to river mouth through the sea, as seen off the Malay coast, and then populate the marshy estuaries of each river they come by (until humans destroy their habitat or hunt them down to the last). Why not. I heard of Romans bringing them for entertainment, so no lack of imaginative explanations.

About hippopotami, I only found a reference in a forum (!) sending to an academic paper which I couldn't find online, where apparently it was stated that they disappeared in the area during the Iron Age - same as what you wrote. Arminden (talk) 18:10, 28 January 2017 (UTC)