The World’s Oldest Living Olive Trees Are Lebanese

[edfrank]

The World’s Oldest Living Olive Trees Are Lebanese
Linda Pappagallo | January 8th, 2013
http://www.greenprophet.com/2013/01/noa ... s-lebanon/

“Sisters” or the the Olive trees of Noah, are the 16 oldest olive trees in the world found in the community of Bechealeh, Lebanon. Some 6,000 years old, folklorists say these have Biblical origins.

Tucked away in the sleepy village of Bechealeh, Lebanon, 16 olive trees have witnessed 6000 years of political unrest, plagues, diseases, varying climatic conditions and changing civilizations. In fact these “trees of Noah” are considered by locals to be a living miracle because nature, as we all know, is often silent and passive in the face of hardship, greed and violence so the fact that these arcane olive trees have managed to skirt 6000 years of climatic shifts, hacking axes and diseases makes me believe that, as improbable as this may sound, that there has been some mystical or divine providence watching over and protecting those trees for Bechealeh, for Lebanon and – who knows – maybe even for all the rest of us. continued...

Images of Olive trees from “The Sisters” olive trees of Noah http://www.greenprophet.com/2013/01/noa ... ve%20trees

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[Chris]

Besides the obviously baseless "6000 year old" description, pretty cool looking trees.

[edfrank]

There are more photos on the The Sisters Olive Trees of Noah Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/SistersOlive

[Joe]

I'm not suprised that olive trees can live a very long time, but I'm surprised that they haven't been cut down by one army or another- since armies often cut down the economically valuable trees of people who they were battling with.
Joe

[edfrank]

I'm not suprised that olive trees can live a very long time, but I'm surprised that they haven't been cut down by one army or another- since armies often cut down the economically valuable trees of people who they were battling with.
Joe

It is surprising. Much of the fighting in the area is between various religious groups. Maybe they all feel the trees are part of their own cultural heritage - in effect a prize or heirloom to be recovered rather than as a resource to exploit or to deprive.

Ed

[Don]

Actually they do get cut down, yearly...it's common olive tree management to severely prune them back, forcing them to rebranch, effectively renewing the tree's energy reserves each year, and significantly increasing the quality and quantity of their output.
This, from a third cousin in Spain who has an olive grove surrounding his residence, of some significant age. Most of the olive trees in Spain were planted by the Church in the 1500/1600s, after they'd cleared the original pine forests...