Olive Oil, Politics and Adventures in the Holy Land

Friday, March 20, 2009

Searching for the lost Turkish Gold


Gold Fever. We got it and it sent us out this week in search of the Legend of the Turkish Gold. Legend has it that Turkish soldiers fleeing the British in Gaza in 1917 buried four crates of gold coins at the Tel Najila train station north of Beersheba.
My buddy Yoav and I set out for the Negev to Tel Najila. According to the legend, the Turks saw they wouldn't be able to out run the British cavalry and ordered 30 soldiers to dig a pit on top of Tel Najila, a prominent ancient mound. They then lowered the crates into the pit and the officers shot the soldiers dead so they couldnt' tell the tale. The plan was to return after the war and retreive the gold. The six officers drew a map, marking off 30 meters north of the great 400-year-old tamirisk on top of the tel where the pit was.
They never came back and the legend was born. Over the decades grave robbers and others in search of the gold returned to the tel.
When we arrived to the top we discovered that the entire site had been plundered. Some of the pits were even dug by backhoes or bulldozers. Pits were everywhere. I saw one with fresh digging and jumped in. I suddenly noticed it was filled with bones... human bones. How did I know? Because I found a human jaw bone. My first thought was that this was proof of the validity of the story. This must be the remains of one of the poor Turkish soldiers who was killed in the treasure pit. I dug more with a garden hoe and just hit dirt.
We were weary of the Antiquties Authority's rangers and decided to leave it for now. Maybe we'll go back with my buddy's metal detector one day.

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