Bahr al-Banat is an area half way between Deir Ghassaneh and al-Majdhoub. The name is literally translated into the "sea of girls". According to the local story, women gathered in this area during holiday seasons (mawasim) particularly on good Friday. Since the times of Salah Eddin al-Ayyoubi
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Ein Zarqa is a natural spring that lies at the one end of the Nabi Ghaith trail and the Natuf Valley. The spring water is fresh and drinkable and often tested by the Palestinian water authorities. The site is surrounded by large trees that provide a shaded refuge after a 2-3 hour walk from Maqam
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Ein at-Tineh is a natural spring half way down the trail from Maqam Nabi Ghaith. The area is surrounded by farms, Roman water canals and Ottoman water mills. Additionally you may be able to find the stone burning oven known as Kubbara or Lattoun nearby. Radwan, the farmer who takes care
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The modern village of Deir Ammar is built around the ruins of the old town, which can still be seen at the top of the hill. At the highest point is a small Ottoman-era tomb known as the shrine of Sheikh Tameh. Around the shrine you can explore the remains of the old houses.
As in almost all Palestinian
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Nabi Anir is the name of another abandoned shrine, just to the south of Deir Ammar and Beitillu villages. Evidence of civilization stretch over an area of forty donums surrounded by the ruins of old houses and grape and olive mills dating back to the Iron Age I and through the Ottoman
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Local legend says that the Prophet Ayoub (Job) bathed here in the water springs, and was cured of an unnamed illness. The ruins around the spring stretch back as far as the Hellenistic period.
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The origins of the shrine of Sheikh Qatrawani are obscure, but the gaps in the historical record have been filled with a wealth of local folklore. Locals still say that the sanctuary is named for Sheikh Ahmad al-Qatrawani, a holy man from the village of Qatra on the coast near Gaza. Al-Qatrawani, the
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Without a guide, it would be near-impossible to find the ruins of al-Assirah, which is hidden among ancient oaks just outside the village of Beitillu. This is not a Sufi shrine or sanctuary, but a mosque that once formed part of an Ottoman military garrison. The building is in a state of near total
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The shrine of Nabi Ghaith is hidden in the pine trees on a hill above Deir Ammar. The shrine is located 500 meters to the north of the village 550 meters above sea level. The Maqam (shrine) commemorates Sheikh Ghaith and is built from stones reused from the site. Next to the Maqam lie
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Ein Fatima is a natural spring that lies at one end of the Wadi Natuf. In the 1920s the archaeologist Dorothy Garrod excavated the Shuqba cave in this valley, finding evidence of a Mesolithic culture that existed here between about 12,500 B.C.E. and 9,500 B.C.E. Among the finds were the bones of
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