Aphek in Asher
אֲפֵק · “Afek” on the map
Where was biblical Aphek in Asher? At Tel Afek, Ein Afek reserve near Kiryat Bialik, about 13 km northeast of Haifa. I mark it probable.
The tribe of Asher received this spring-fed town in the Akko plain, but the Canaanites who lived here stayed put.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tel Afek, Ein Afek reserve near Kiryat Bialik
- How sure
- Probable The best case we have, with real alternatives.
- Other names
- Aphek, Aphik, Afik, Tel Afek, Tel Kurdani, Tell Kurdaneh, Recordane
- Location
- 32.8475° N, 35.1107° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
First, which Aphek? The Bible has more than one. The famous Aphek is at the springs of the Yarkon, where the Philistines captured the Ark. That is a different town, far to the south. This is the Aphek of Asher. Joshua lists it with Ummah and Rehob among Asher's towns, and Judges names it again among the places Asher could not take.
The name is the clue. An afik is a stream channel, a place where water runs. It is the word in the psalm: "As a deer longs for afikei mayim, streams of water." This tel sits on the strong springs that feed the Na'aman River, the only major spring-fed mound in the Akko plain. A town named for its water belongs on the plain's great water source.
The neighbors fit too. Joshua lists Aphek with Ummah and Rehob, and Judges names it with Akko, Achziv and Rehob, the towns of the Akko plain that Asher could not take. Tel Afek sits just southeast of Akko, in the middle of that group.
And the ground holds the right kind of town. Excavators found Bronze Age walls and tombs, with pottery from Cyprus and Mycenae beside the local wares. That is a rich Canaanite town of exactly the sort that held out against Asher, and people went on living here into the Iron Age. The Arabic name, Tell Kurdaneh, did not keep the old name. But the meaning, the neighbors and the finds all point here, and most scholars accept it.
The Bible also mentions an Aphek "at the Amorite border," usually placed at Afqa in Lebanon. A few scholars have looked for Asher's Aphek in the north as well. But Afqa lies far outside Asher's plain.
Visiting today
Ein Afek Nature Reserve has pools, a boardwalk through the wetland and the restored Crusader tower-mill on the tel.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Afek on the interactive map →
The whole Land on your wall
A hand-drawn map of Biblical Israel, with more than 160 places from Dan to Kadesh Barnea, printed on archival matte paper.
Free with every print: a companion ebook on every place on the map, a $19.99 value.
From $49.99 · Free US shipping
Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Acco (Akko) 9 km northwest
- Mount Carmel 14 km southwest
- Jokneam (Yokneam) 20 km south
- Achzib (Achziv) 22 km north
- Megiddo 30 km south
- Dor 31 km southwest