Israel 2017 "UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Israel"

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Issue Date	07.02.2017
ID	Michel: Stanley Gibbons: UPU: IL009.17 Category: pR
Designer	Ronen Goldberg
Stamps in set	3
Value	IS 2.40 - Nahal Me'arot Caves IS 5.00 - Bet She'arim Necropolis IS 10.0 - Maresha and Bet-Gurvin Caves
Size (width x height)	30 mm X 40 mm
Layout	3 sheet of 15stamps each
Products	FDC x1
Paper
Perforation	13
Print Technique
Printed by	Cartor Security Printing, France
Quantity
Issuing Authority	Israel Post Ltd.

On February 7th, 2017 Israel Post issued a set of three stamps with title "UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Israel"

In 1972, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) approved an agreement to protect world heritage sites. The program included rules to assess natural and cultural sites and determine their significance to mankind's common cultural heritage. Every country prepares a list of its sites and once a year the UNESCO World Heritage Center conducts a special meeting to choose which of the nominated sites shall be included in the list of United Nations World Heritage Sites. In 2000, the agreement was ratified by the government of Israel, and since then a number of Israeli sites have been added to the list: Old City of Acre (2001), Masada (2001), White City of Tel Aviv (2003), Biblical Tels – Megiddo, Hazor, Beer Sheba (2005), Incense Route – Desert Cities in the Negev (Avdat, Mamshit, Haluza and Shivta) (2005), Baha'i Holy Places (2008), Nahal Me'arot Caves (2012), Maresha and Bet-Guvrin Caves (2014), Necropolis of Bet She'arim (2015).

Nahal Me'arot Caves Four caves are carved into the mountain on the southern slope of Mount Carmel, at the entrance to the Nahal Me'arot Caves. Archeological excavations conducted at the site from 1928 to the present have discovered evidence of human existence near and inside the caves over hundreds of thousands of years. Among the many findings were remnants of houses, various stone tools, jewelry, bones of animals used for food and graves. Neanderthals may have lived side by side with early humans and possibly interbred with them, according to new research. Stone axes and sharp flint arrowheads of both branches of the human race have been discovered in limestone caves in northern Israel. The findings have led archeologists to believe the two sub-species found harmony in a coastal mountain range that today is in a state of war with its neighbours. one of the bones uncovered at Nahal Me'arot - a World Heritage site - had lethal wounds which suggested prehistoric men lived in peace with each other 80,000 years ago

Bet She'arim Necropolis Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi, leader of the Jewish people in the late 2nd century CE, was buried at his behest in the cemetery in the town of Bet She'arim in the western Jezreel Valley. Many others subsequently asked to be buried near the final resting place of the admired leader. Dozens of burial caves were dug into the hillside and on the outskirts of the town. Jews were brought from all over Eretz Israel and even from faraway lands to be buried there.The hundreds of epitaphs found in the caves provide information about the Jewish lifestyle in the 3rd and 4th centuries CE. Maresha and Bet-Guvrin Caves Residents of the city of Maresha, in the southern Judean plain, carved many spaces beneath their homes into the soft chalk bedrock upon which the city was built. These spaces served as water reservoirs, agricultural production facilities, storage rooms, pigeon raising, burial caves and more. After Maresha was destroyed in the 1st century BCE a new city called Bet-Guvrin was constructed nearby. In the Byzantine period, the townspeople carved bricks out of the chalk in deep, bell-shaped caves.

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References

Info Brochure Israel Philately (the article does not exist anymore) Dailymail

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