In the late-Roman Byzantine period a new aqueduct system, a Lower Aqueduct, was built to provide the expanding city of Caesarea with additional water from the Tananim Stream and many springs close to the coast. But how could one bring water to Caesarea from a stream that was at the same level as the city? The solution was to dam up the stream and create a huge lake that was three meters above the level of the stream. However, a functional system like this needs careful maintenance, which was not provided when Caesarea diminished in importance, and this resulted in a marshland.  Already by the late medieval period, historical travelers describe the region as malarial.

 

The swamp was eventually drained in the 1920s. Some of this area is now a park and contains a very pleasant, easy trail. There is no English brochure but the trail is labelled via signs in Hebrew and English. The stream was named Taninim – Hebrew for crocodiles – because these reptiles inhabited the swamps until the beginning of the 20th century. The sluice for the dam and water mills are recreated.  

 

Because the springs produce water with an increased salinity, water from the Lower Aqueduct was not used for drinking but for other purposes. It was covered over all the way to Caesarea and one of its arches can be seen from the park. It fell into disuse during the Muslim period. Children can now play in its shallow water, although it can be slippery. Six flour mills were built in the stream in the Byzantine period and seven mills in the Ottoman period.

 

The wetlands were drained by Baron Edmond de Rothschild between 1922 to 1932, with the intention of developing this land for settlement. The reserve protects the core wetland zone around the stream itself, including springs, channels, and seasonal marsh patches, while the remainder of the land is used for agriculture. Edmond de Rothschild also established a clay pipe factory here, although this was not successful. The workers he employed for this work were housed nearby and this became the Arab village of Jist az-Zarqa.

 

There is a much longer 5 km Stream Trail which separates from the Dam Trail and goes along the stream and by the village, although it is currently closed.