Yatir Forest (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Yatir Forest (Hebrew: ) is a forest in Israel, located on the southern slopes of Mount Hebron, on the edge of the Negev Desert. The forest covers an area of 30,000 dunams (30 square kilometers), and is the largest planted forest in Israel. The first trees were planted in 1964 by the Jewish National Fund at the initiative of Yosef Weitz. It is named after the ancient Levite city within its territory, Yatir, as written in the Old Testament: "And unto the children of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Libnah with its suburbs, and Jattir with its suburbs, and Eshtemoa with its suburbs" (Book of Joshua 21:13-14). Over four million trees have been planted, mostly coniferous trees - Aleppo Pine and Cypress, but also many broad leafed trees (such as Atlantic Terebinth, Tamarisk, Jujube, and Carob), Olive, fig, Eucalyptus and Acacia, vineyards and various shrubs.