Dura | ||
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Other transcription(s) | ||
• Arabic | دورا | |
• Also spelled | Durrah (official) | |
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Location of Dura within the Palestinian territories | ||
Coordinates: 31°30′25″N 35°01′40″E / 31.50694°N 35.02778°ECoordinates: 31°30′25″N 35°01′40″E / 31.50694°N 35.02778°E | ||
Palestine grid | 152/101 | |
Governorate | Hebron | |
Government | ||
• Type | City (from 1967) | |
• Head of Municipality | Dr. Sameer Hamid Al-Namoura | |
Population (2007) | ||
• Jurisdiction | 28,268 | |
Name meaning | Dura, (p.n) |
Dura (Arabic: دورا) is a Palestinian town located eleven kilometers southwest of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate in the southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of over 28,268 in 2007. The current mayor is Sameer Al-Namoura.
Some believe Noah, the tenth of the pre-flood Patriarchs, as the story of Noah's Ark is told in the Hebrew Bible, is buried in Dura. The city was fortified by Rehoboam (974 BC – 913 BC), King of the United Monarchy of Israel and later the King of the Kingdom of Judah, who was a son of Solomon and a grandson of David, according to 2 Chron. 11.9. The city was called Adora in the First Book of Maccabees (1 Macc. 13.20).
In 1517, the village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Syria. After the British Mandate, in the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Dura was occupied by Jordan and came under Jordanian rule. Dura was established as a municipality on January 1, 1967, five months before it was occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War.
According to the municipality, the name "Dura" is derived from a Canaanite word meaning house and not the Arabic word for corn. Its ancient Canaanite name is Adoraim.