From the dawn of time until today there has been a war raging in Eretz Yisrael. This war has had many battles and has left many wounds and scars on the land. In fact, the entire history of Eretz Yisrael has been affected by this war. Each side is constantly trying to forge ahead into the others territory. Each side has had victories and each side has retreated in defeat. The war I am referring to is the constant battle between the land and the sea. We can identify at least five different places where the coastline has been over history. The telltale signs are the kurkar rocks that are formed in low water where the land and sea meet. When we see kurkar ridgelines, that means that at some point in history that is where the sea met the land. The most eastern kurkar ridgeline is along the foothills of the Shomron hills approximately where Road 6 runs today. The western most kurkar ridgline lies in an area that is currently in the middle of the sea. The area in between two kurkar ridgelines acts as a gutter trapping the water running down from the hills toward the sea. The water trapped in this area turned into swamp lands. Over the centuries nobody wanted to live in the swamp lands and they were considered areas that are uninhabitable. When the Jewish people started to return to Eretz Yisrael at the end of the nineteenth century it was these seemingly worthless lands that the local Arabs were willing to sell to the Jews. The Jews, having no choice, bought these lands and with much determination, sweat and blood were able to dry these swamps and turn them into productive fertile land. These lands gave the Jewish people a foothold in Eretz Yisrael that played an important role in the return of the Jewish people to Eretz Yisrael after so many years in exile. This is just one example of many that demonstrates how geology can dictate the way history unfolds