The ‘Land of Pursuits Monument’ (אנדרטת ארץ המרדפים ), also known as the Jordan Valley Monument, is a magnificent memorial which is hidden in the Jordan valley off of highway 90, beside the village of Petzael.
In the years following the 1967 Six Day War, frequent terrorist attacks were perpetrated against Israeli towns and villages by terrorists entering from Jordan. The IDF regularly intercepted terrorists in the Jordan Valley (the valley along the Jordan river which is the border between Israel and Jordan ), and it became an area in which many firefights and hot pursuits occurred.
As a result of the infiltrations, the IDF created a new brigade stationed in the Jordan Valley, whose task was specifically to combat the terrorists from Jordan.
The IDF developed new combat strategies to accommodate the difficult terrain of the Jordan Valley.
In the years following 1970, Jordan took steps to stop infiltrations into Israel.
The monument was created in 1972 by the Israeli sculptor Yigal Tumarkin. It is built out of cement and steel. Tumarkin took various types of guns, heated them and shaped them into the form of an anit-aircraft cannon which rises to the height of 21 meters.
The names of nearly 400 soldiers who fell in the Jordan Valley are engraved on the memorial.
The memorial makes a great stop when traveling between Jerusalem and Beit Shean on highway 90.
