Tefen Citadel (Arabic: “Kaleat a-Tafania”) is an archaeological site from the Hellenistic period with the remains of a large fortress. The citadel is located to the north and near the settlement of Kishor in the Upper Galilee, on a ridge that used to be called Jebel a-Raus, (the mountain of the heads) and overlooks Nahal Beit Hamek. The origin of the name is unknown. It is possible that the name “Tufania” is related to the word “Tufan” in Arabic (flood), or it is a preservation of an ancient name of the area around it (“Tefen”). The citadel is part of the system of fortifications that protected the Hellenistic city of Ptolemais (Acre).

The citadel has so far been dated by researchers to the Hellenistic period, during the rule of the Seleucid Kingdom – in the second century BC. But a new study conducted by Roi Zabar, a doctoral student from the Department of Archeology and the Ancient Near East at the Hebrew University, now reveals that the explanation regarding the ruin theory is not accurate, and that the citadel was actually established after the collapse of the Seleucid kingdom and at the peak of the flourishing of small local kingdoms throughout the southern Levant.

According to the new study, published in the journal, the fortress was built at the end of the reign of the Hasmonean king Alexander Yanai. The geographic location of the citadel suggests that it was built to help protect the northwestern border of the Hasmonean kingdom.

In previous studies, researchers estimated that the citadel was built in the 2nd century BC by the residents of Acre and occupied by the Hasmoneans only afterwards. Now, the study states that the citadel was actually established in the first quarter of the 1st century BC by the Hasmoneans themselves, as a border citadel in front of the city of Acre

Biblical Hiking map