Some of the defenders managed to make it to the peak, where, like the first time, it was a choice between one death and another. Vespasian had rejoined the fray, and it was he who led the assault on the camel's neck. Boxed in, the Jews rolled down rocks, causing heavy casualties, "while they themselves on their lofty perch were almost out of reach. But to ensure their destruction they were struck full in the face by a miraculous tempest, which carried the Roman shafts up to them but checked their own and turned them aside." Despairing, the Jews flung their wives and children, and finally themselves, into the immense ravine far below. More leaped than died by the sword. Yehudiya Forest Nature Reserve The 16,500-acre Yehudiya Forest Nature Reserve is located in the heart of the Golan Heights. The reserve is shaped like an outstretched hand: the palm is Beit Zaida Valley, and each finger represents a river with rushing water and waterfalls. The reserve is 400 meters above sea level at its acme and gently slopes down its lowest point, 100 meters below sea level. The 5000 forested acres of the reserve are called the Yehudiya Forest. The most common tree in the forest is the Mount Tabor oak, a large evergreen. The Mount Tabors create a formation known as a "park forest," a forest in which the trees grow relatively far apart from one another. A wealth of small plants and a savanna of jujubes and pistachios grow between the oaks. From the intersection of I 74 and Exit 91/University Street in Peoria, go east on I 74 for 1.5 miles to the Glendale Ave. exit. Go 0.2 miles on Glendale Ave. to Hamilton Blvd. and turn right. Continue 0.1 miles and turn right onto Knoxville Ave. Continue under overpass, veering right and traveling through the hospital drive, which turns into Glen Oak Ave. Keep left on Prospect for 3.4 miles through the intersection with US 150 and the business district of Peoria Heights. Turn east (right) at the stop sign onto N. Forest Park Drive. Follow 0.6 miles to the entrance on the left.The ground at the reserve is populated by wild boar, northern jackal, red fox, Syrian hyrax, Indian crested porcupine, and the Cairo spiny mouse; the skies are home to birds of prey such as kestrel, short-toed eagle, Bonelli?s eagle, Egyptian vulture, and Griffon vulture, as well as a wonderful variety of songbirds. Rivers:The five most important rivers that flow through the reserve and down into Beit Zaida Valley are Meshoshim, Zavitan, Yehudiya, Gamla, and Daliyot. The rivers are fed by scores of springs, which drain into a network of rivulets. The rivers get deeper and carve out extraordinary canyons in the basalt rocks, with waterfalls toppling from above. In the flat plains of the Beit Zaida Valley, the streams form lagoons and marshes, waterscapes which cannot be seen elsewhere in Israel. This rugged 540-acre park was acquired in the mid-1950s and later designated as a state nature preserve.