The stream starts between Tira and Ramat HaKovesh, east of Mishmeret. It runs west to the sea, veering north at Batzra. It is mostly intermittent, and becomes a perennial stream towards its end. There is a man-made opening in the kurkar ridge that runs south-north along the coastal plain.
History
In Arabic, the stream had been known as نهر الفالقNahr al-Faliq, alternatively transliterated as Nahr Falaik;[1] and later as وادي الفالقWadi al-Faliq.[2]
Poleg Delta
The nearby Tel Poleg archaeological site was excavated, revealing a fortified city of the Middle Bronze Age. The site has mostly been destroyed by a modern quarry. The original opening in the kurkar ridge was made in the Bronze Age, and reopened during the Roman period.[3][4]
The Crusaders called the stream River Rochetaillé ("Split-rock River") because of the long narrow rock channel, cut artificially at some former period through the inland cliffs, by which the river finds a channel to the sea shore.[5] On 6 September 1191, the night before the Battle of Arsuf, the Crusaders camped near the mouth of River Rochetaillé; by then, the opening in the ridge had clogged again, resulting in a 4000-dunammarsh, which protected the Crusaders' camp from the east.
The opening was cleared again in 1935, and the stream's current course was set in the area east of the kurkar ridge.[6] The marsh, known by the Arabs as Birkat Ramadan, remained south of Tel Yitzhak as late as 1945, and was a popular hunting location with abundant wildfowl.[7]
Nature Reserve
The Nahal Poleg nature reserve is situated between Wingate Institute and Ramat Poleg, between Highway 2 and the Mediterranean.[8] It covers 500 dunams, and was declared a reserve in 1971.[9]
Flora in the reserve includes a coastal variety of Boxthorn, Ephedra aphylla, Calicotome villosa, the endemic Rumex rothschildianus, Iris atropurpurea, Lupin, and Tulipa agenensis sharonensis.
