?Ara

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?ARA

?ARA , Muslim-Arab village near the western entrance of the Iron Valley, on the ?aderah–Afulah highway. In antiquity the valley was a vital stretch of the Via Maris. In 1967 ?Ara had 1,970 inhabitants. Its economy was based on intensive farming. The village is assumed to be located on the site of Iron, a Canaanite town of the second millennium b.c.e. ("?Irn" in the Egyptian reports of Thutmose iii's campaign against Megiddo.).

[Efraim Orni]

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