Literary sources suggest that Mt. Carmel was a sacred site for the
pagans, for the veneration and worship of Ba'al, as practiced there
since the 9th century BCE through the erection of altars and
temples/shrines in his honour. According to Iamblichus, the Greek
philosopher Pythagoras, on his way to Egypt, visited the mountain
in the second half of the 6th century BCE and sought solitude in a
temple, or perhaps in a temenos. In the days of the Achaemenid king
of Persia Darius I (521-486 BCE), the mountain seems to have been
sacred to Zeus. Artistic and epigraphic evidence suggest that
Elijah's Cave, on the western slope of Mt. Carmel, had been used as
a pagan cultic place, possibly a shrine, devoted to Ba'al Carmel
(identified with Zeus/Jupiter) as well as to Pan and Eros as
secondary deities. The visual representation of the cult statue
(idol) of Ba'al Carmel, a libation vessel (kylix?) and the presumed
figure of the priest or, alternatively, the altar within the
aedicula, strengthen the assumption that the Cave was used in the
Roman period, and perhaps even earlier. In addition, one of the
Greek inscriptions, dated to the Roman period, indicates the sacred
nature of the Cave and the prohibition of its profanation. When
Elijah's Cave ceased to be used for pagan worship it continued to
be regarded as a holy site and was dedicated to Prophet Elijah,
presumably in the Early Byzantine period. Following the tradition
linking Elijah (so-called el-Khader) with Mt. Carmel, it became
sacred to the Prophet and was used by supplicants (Jews,
Christians, Muslims and Druze) to Elijah for aid, healing and
salvation, a tradition that still persists to this day. There are
no literary or historical sources which are recording the existence
of Elijah's Cave on Mt. Carmel prior to the 12th century. The
earliest written testimony is that of the laconic description of
the Russian Abbot Daniel, who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in
1106-1107, followed by Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, who visited the
Land of Israel in 1165. Any earlier written material must have been
lost over time, since it is unlikely that the Cave and its
surroundings were entirely ignored before the 12th century.
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