Nablus - Pictures of Palestine

Nablus was founded as Neapolis in Roman times (with the same name as Naples, meaning 'new city') just west of an ancient Samaritan village gaggled around the ancient Jacob's Well. It is located in a deep valley between two ancient holy mountains, Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. The town is long and thin, following the valley-bottom and climbing up its sides, with a population of 130,000.

Today’s city is less prosperous than Ramallah and Bethlehem, not least because it is frequently blockaded and roadblocked by Israel. Though religious Israelis claim it as their ancient Jewish birthright, there is actually no evidence of early Jewish settlement there – if anything it is historically more important to Christians, though few Christians now live there. Jews and Samaritans were quite numerous a thousand years ago though.

However, Jews claim it as the site of the ancient Jewish city of Shechem. Two sites, Joseph’s Tomb and Jacob’s Well, crop up periodically in the news when army-backed settlers enter in coaches, officially to make their prayers. There’s a provocative aspect to it, including desecration of mosques. Perhaps this is retaliatory, since Nablus was a centre for militant actions in the second intifada, during which 522 residents were killed and 3,000 injured. In the last municipal elections in 2005, 13 out of 15 representatives were from Hamas, and only two from Fatah.

Nablus is quite unpretentious – it reminds me of Swansea in Wales – and it receives few foreign visitors. Yet its valley location, with buildings clinging to the edge of the mountains, makes it rather special, a city to remember and pleasantly unmodernised. One nice aspect of it is that foreigners are treated as objects of friendly surprise rather than as walking ATMs and buying-machines.

There’s a lovely Ottoman old city in the centre of town. I love Ottoman architecture. They were big developers, the Ottomans, whose 300 year rule ended during the First World War. What’s so nice about Ottoman urban areas is that they’re human-size, built for pedestrians. They have lovely arches, domes, courtyards, alleyways, buildings, nooks and crannies.

NEXT: Jenin, Spring of the Gardens

© Copyright Palden Jenkins 2011. All text and photographs on this website are copyright Palden Jenkins. You may not use these pictures in print or on websites without  permission of the author.  The book's website is at   www.palden.co.uk/pop