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Photo: DeenaAy, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This is a charming area filled with winding narrow streets and small shops selling all kinds of foods, clothing, and trinkets. Simply enter the alleyways leading into it nearby the massive parking garage in the center of town, and wander around until you recognize every street.
The Old City of Nablus is the historical center of Nablus, in the northern West Bank. Known for its cultural, architectural, and social heritage, the Old City was founded as a Roman city, and remained an important urban center ever since. The Old City of Nablus was a center of commerce, with large souqs selling textiles, spices and Nabulsi soap. Today it includes more than 100 historical monumental buildings. The Old City has been repeatedly damaged by Israeli rockets and bombs, particularly during the Second Intifada, where it suffered "probably more than any other Palestinian city".
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حمام السمره الهنا
Seen from all over Nablus, this monastery offers a great from above Nablus. The archaeological site included a complex of household installation and spaces, such as an open courtyard, a rain-fed cistern, a stable, and a kitchen. It also included a room with a mosaic floor with fragments of religious texts. This room gave access to an exceptional space of a chapel with colourful mosaics and a dedicatory text for three deceased ‘brothers, lovers of Christ’. A nicely decorated chancel screen separated the holy eastern part, the bema, with its altar table, from the main room.
The top of the mountain hosts the community of "Kiryat Luza", one of the only two Samaritan communities left in the world. The Samaritans are an ancient offshoot of Judaism who believe that Mount Gerizim, and not the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, is the location of the Holy of the Holies. The Samaritans of Nablus hold both Palestinian and Israeli ID cards and historically have had good relations with both the Palestinians and the Israelis (they are also represented in the Nablus Municipality). The Palestinians of Nablus revere the Samaritans alleged ability to predict the future with palm readings by using the Samaritan holy books. Kiryat Luza offers tours of their community and even has a gift shop. Genetic studies have made the hypothesis that much of Nablus' Palestinian population are descendants of Samaritans who converted to Islam throughout the centuries of Muslim rule of the Holy Land.
Tell Balata archaeological site, near Nablus, the site contains the remains of a Middle Bronze Age city with a massive fortification wall (ca. 1650-1450 BC), two impressive gates and a fortress temple. The site has been identified as ancient Shechem, known from Egyptian and biblical references. Tell Balata was an important cultural and political centre due to its strategic location at the eastern end of a pass between Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal. It was overlooking the plain of Askar and commanded all traffic through the area. It was also a centre for agriculture and trade, it has been called “the uncrowned queen of Palestine”. The archaeological evidence on the history on the site is the result of German and American excavation during the 20th century. It shows that Tell Balata was first settled in the Chalcolithic period (c.4000- 3500 BC) and developed into a city during the Middle and Late Bronze Age. The site was used again during the Iron Age and throughout the Hellenistic times until the 1st century BC. After the Hellenistic times the focus of the settlement shifted further west to the newly established Roman town of Flavia Neapolis, now known as Nablus. Tell Balata is a potential World Heritage Site as part of "Old Town Nablus and its environs". The site is being developed by a joined Palestinian-Dutch project, in cooperation with UNESCO, into Tell Balata Archaeological Park. Facilities for visitors will be provided, as of 2013 there will be a visitor centre.
In the eastern part of the city is a Muslim and Jewish holy site; however, it closes sporadically and it may not be possible to visit. As of March 2008 Joseph's Tomb had part of the roof destroyed and has been burnt out. Of the two Palestinian guards, one spoke English, and after radioing in advised that photos could not be taken without permission.