Bchaaleh's treasure
The Olive Trees of Noah
Eleven giants stand in a row at the southern entrance of the village. Their trunks are hollow, their leaves are silver, and every autumn they still give fruit.
Eleven giants in a row
Anyone driving into Bchaaleh from the south stops here. Eleven ancient olive trees line the main road, their massive trunks and tall branches arranged in a near-perfect straight line, at equal distances, exactly as olives are planted today.
That order tells a story: these are not wild trees, but trees planted by a farmer of Bchaaleh in a very distant past, as if to leave a witness to the age of his village.
Hollowed by time, still alive
Time has carved the trunks from within and without. Some have become great hollow rings; the widest measures around fifty paces. In the last century, shepherds even sheltered their flocks inside them in winter.
And yet the trees live on. Their branches still flower in spring, and their olives are still harvested and pressed for oil.
How old are they?
Local tradition holds that the Olive Trees of Noah are some 6,000 years old, and the Ministry of Tourism sign at the grove dates them to 4,000 years before Christ. These estimates have made them famous as some of the oldest olive trees in the world.
A precise scientific dating has not yet been published, and the village has long hoped for one. Whatever the exact figure, these trees were already old when the village churches were built.
And the dove came back to him in the evening, and in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf.Genesis 8:11
Why "Noah's" olive trees?
The name comes from the story of the Flood. When Noah released the dove, it returned with an olive leaf, the sign that the waters had receded. Olives do not grow on the high cold peaks of Ararat, the old villagers would say, so the leaf must have come from olive trees that grew high in the mountains, and emerged first from the water. Why not those of Bchaaleh?
It is a legend, of course. But it tells you how deeply the people of Bchaaleh love their trees.
Olives at 1,250 metres
Olives rarely grow this high. In Bchaaleh the harvest runs from late autumn into winter, sometimes under the first snow. Families still cure the green "mjarjar" olives and press an oil known for its quality.
The trees are cared for by the St Stephen's church committee, which owns them, together with the municipality and the village's development association, to protect this heritage for the next generations.
Visiting the grove
- The trees stand beside the main road at the southern entrance of the village: you cannot miss them.
- Admire them, photograph them, but please do not climb on the trunks or cut branches.
- The light is most beautiful in the morning and late afternoon.
- Come in late autumn to see the harvest, or after a snowfall for an unforgettable picture.