Kafr Naffakh
ﻛﻔﺮ ﻧﻔﺎخ
כפר נפח‎
Village
Kafr Naffakh is located in Syria
Kafr Naffakh
Kafr Naffakh
Kafr Naffakh is located in the Golan Heights
Kafr Naffakh
Kafr Naffakh
Coordinates: 33°3′44″N 35°44′27″E / 33.06222°N 35.74083°E / 33.06222; 35.74083
Country Syria
GovernorateQuneitra
DistrictQuneitra
RegionGolan Heights
DestroyedJune 10, 1967
Population
 (1960)
 • Total664[1]

Kafr Naffakh (Arabic: ﻛﻔﺮ ﻧﻔﺎخ) is an abandoned Syrian village in the central Golan Heights.[2]

History

Sites and artifacts were found in the village that show human settlement as early as the Roman and Hellenistic eras, during which the village sat next to a central route that connected Syrian cities to the Mediterranean coast. During the Roman era, the village was used as a station for providing services to passengers on the main road. Such a station – "Mutatio" – was placed approximately every six kilometres along the main roads throughout the Roman Empire.[3] In 2020, an archaeological dig discovered a 1,700-year-old boundary stone on which "Kfar Naffakh" was written in Greek letters. This indicates that the village's name during the Byzantine era was "Naffakh".[4]

During the 19th century, the village was repopulated by Turkmen settlers,[5] who used the ruins of the place to build their houses. Over the years, the village was also inhabited by residents of other origins and by 1960, it had a total of 664 residents.[1] In 1967, with the advance of the IDF in the Golan Heights, the village's residents left their homes and it was abandoned.

During the Syrian rule in the Golan Heights, the village sat on the central route from Quneitra - Daughters of Jacob Bridge, being more or less in the centre of the road. There were centres and bases of the Syrian army in the vicinity of the village, including in Naffakh and Alika. After Israel conquered the Golan Heights in June 1967, the abandoned village served as a temporary settlement for a Gar'in in the Golan Heights. Today, there are several IDF bases in the vicinity of the abandoned village, including Camp Yitzhak (Camp Nafah).[2][6]

The ruins of the village are located near the HaShiryon Junction connecting Highway 91 and Route 978, and slightly west of Naffakh is also the junction connecting the Petroleum Road and Highway 91.

References

  1. 1 2 Kipnis, Yigal (2013). The Golan Heights: Political History, Settlement and Geography since 1949. London and New York: Routledge. p. 243. ISBN 978-1-136-74092-3.
  2. 1 2 Golan Heights and vicinity (Map).
  3. ↑ Dauphin & Gibson 1994, p. 7.
  4. ↑ "1,700-year-old boundary stone bearing name 'Kfar Nafah' found in Golan Heights". Jewish News Syndicate. October 27, 2020.
  5. ↑ Demographic map of the Golan Heights (Map).
  6. ↑ Schuster, Ruth (October 30, 2020). "Name of Israeli Army Base Goes Back 1,700 Years". Haaretz.

Sources

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