Water tunnels at Nahal ‘Amal (Israel): evidence of a water-based sugar industry in the Mamluk period?

Abstract The Mamluks extended their Medieval period control from the water-rich Nile Valley to the dry southern Levant. We try to elucidate the Mamluk way of utilizing water energy for sugar production at the Bet She’an Valley. The studied hewn tunnels served some industrial installation. We dated the tunnels to the Mamluks period, suggesting that they fed water to sugar mills, a particularly dominant industry during this period in the region. The tunnels reveal how Mamluks adapted their water technologies to local conditions. Rather than using traditional open aqueducts, which would have been difficult to construct, they carved tunnels through soft tufa rock—showing both engineering ingenuity and pragmatic problem-solving to support a lucrative export industry. This connects local archaeological findings to the broader medieval international trade networks. We show how the brackish water resources were repurposed over centuries—from Mamluk sugar mills to Ottoman flour mills - demonstrating the enduring value of reliable water sources. We demonstrate the importance of looking beyond the obvious remains of aqueducts and dams to find less visible but equally important infrastructure like these tunnels.