Ein Masilla

All the information about Ein Masilla: Ein Masilla is a small and lovely spring where you can wade your feet in the oppressive heat, and you can also have a small picnic there or a "coffee package." Its original name was Be'er Dovav (Bir Dovaan). It was a point on the Burma Road where caravans that arrived from the lowlands met those that arrived from Jerusalem. Today the place is named after the nearby settlement—Masillat Zion. The original Burma Road was paved during the Sino-Japanese War (1938) and led for about 1,100 km from Burma to China, with the aim of bypassing the Japanese forces. The road was also used by U.S. Army soldiers in World War II to transport supplies to besieged China. Since then, any bypass road has been called the "Burma Road." The Israeli Burma Road was paved in the summer of 1948 from Kibbutz Houlda to Sha'ar HaGai, in order to supply besieged Jerusalem. At its center there was a difficult section for the passage of jeeps, so at the beginning the food sacks were transported by porters, and later explosives were used to prepare the road for the passage of trucks—but even then the trucks had to move over iron platforms (serpentines). The road was used for less than half a year, but its impact on the ability of the residents of Jerusalem to withstand the situation was decisive. Today it is possible to travel along the entire length of the road, with the central section still passable only for a front-wheel-drive vehicle with a high undercarriage. The more touristic sections are two: the first is from Mount Tzofim via Einot Susin to Ein Masilla, on Highway 38, where the problematic segment is bypassed by a more convenient route. The second is from the Highway 38 area memorial (the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs?)—"אנדרטת המח\"ל" (the Memorial for the Overseas Legion/Volunteer Corps) —to Beit Meir. We can do the first segment along its entire length in any vehicle or by bicycle, whereas we can do the second segment only in a high vehicle with front-wheel drive. In total, there were 13 Burma Roads in the Land of Israel. For example, the Egyptian Burma Road, which was used by Egyptian army soldiers who were "killed in the Zip Plouga," namely today's Qiryat Gat (Kiryat Gat of today). You can see a remnant of it, which is now used as a marked hiking trail colored red, passable for a 4x4 vehicle (because of the sandy/muddy nature of the route). On Highway 40, about a little more than a kilometer south of the Tziplogot Junction, shortly after the trails merge into one highway, there is a right turn into the grove. The road leads to the Sha'ar area settlement—until onwards to Shahar—and continues.