Beit Zakariah

Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah
Other transcription(s)
• Also spelled	Khallet Sakarya (unofficial)
Area map showing Khallet Sakariya, 2011
Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah Location of Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah within Palestine
Coordinates: 31°39′47″N 35°07′24″E / 31.66306°N 35.12333°E / 31.66306; 35.12333Coordinates: 31°39′47″N 35°07′24″E / 31.66306°N 35.12333°E / 31.66306; 35.12333
Palestine grid	160/118
Governorate	Bethlehem
Government
• Type	Village council
Name meaning	Khurbet Beit Skâria; The ruin of Beit Skaria (the ancient Beth Zacharias)

Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah (also Beit Zakariyyah or Khirbet Zakariah) is a small Palestinian village in the West Bank. It is located in between the larger Israeli settlements of Alon Shevut and Rosh Tzurim in the Gush Etzion region. Administratively, it is associated with Artas, Bethlehem.

The village may be the site of the Battle of Beth Zechariah between the Jewish Maccabeans and Selucid Greek forces during the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire, in the year 162 BCE. However, other sources place the battle at Zekharia/Az-Zakariyya in modern Israel.

Three rock-cut burial caves, dating to the 1st century BCE have been excavated, and pottery fragments from the 1st century BCE were found.

In the Byzantine period an important church was located here, which appears on the Madaba map. Since then a mosque, going by the name Nabi-Zakariah, has been built on the site of the church. Some of the ruins of the church are preserved beneath the mosque. In general, houses in the village are built on top of ancient ruins and caves.

During the Crusader era, Casale Zacharie, like nearby al-Khidr, probably was a Christian village, and it was granted with al-Khidr to the church of Bethlehem between c. 1155 and c. 1186.

Pottery fragments from the Mamluk era have also been found.

In the Ottoman census of 1538-1539, Bayt Dhakariyya was located in the nahiya of Halil, while in 1557, it was noted that the village revenues went to an Imperial imaret in Jerusalem.