Aseret

Aseret
עֲשֶׂרֶת
Aseret
Coordinates: 31°49′28.56″N 34°44′48.83″E / 31.8246000°N 34.7468972°E / 31.8246000; 34.7468972Coordinates: 31°49′28.56″N 34°44′48.83″E / 31.8246000°N 34.7468972°E / 31.8246000; 34.7468972
Council Gederot
Region Shephelah
Founded 1954
Population (2014)[1] 974
Name meaning Ten (after ten members of Bilu)

Aseret (Hebrew: עֲשֶׂרֶת) is a communal settlement on the coastal plain of south-central Israel. Located near Gedera, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gederot Regional Council. The word "Aseret" means ten, and the community is named after the ten members of Bilu who founded Gedera.[2] In 2014 its population was 974.

History

Aseret was founded in 1954 as the municipal center of Gederot Regional Council. It continues to serve this function today. Aseret is the center, both geographically and municipally, of the other six communities in the council: Meishar, Misgav Dov, Kfar Aviv, Kfar Mordechai, Shdema and Gan HaDarom.[2]

Aseret was built on the lands of Bashshit, an Arab village conquered in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. There is an old tomb associated with Seth, the son of Adam in the Hebrew Bible.[2] According to scholars of the Palestine Exploration Fund, the name Bashshit was derived from Beit Shit, meaning the "house of Seth.[3][4] The tomb lies within a triple-domed mosque located on the side of a hill.[5]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aseret.
  1. 2014 populations Israel Central Bureau of Statistics
  2. 1 2 3 Mapa's concise gazetteer of Israel (in Hebrew). Yuval El'azari (ed.). Tel-Aviv: Mapa Publishing. 2005. p. 437. ISBN 965-7184-34-7.
  3. Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), 1838, p. 84.
  4. Palestine Exploration Fund. "Quarterly Statement for 1877". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2009-08-22.
  5. Petersen, Andrew (2002). A Gazetteer of Buildings in Muslim Palestine: Volume I (British Academy Monographs in Archaeology). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-727011-0.
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