Sur Baher
Sur Baher
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| Hebrew transcription(s) | |
| • Also spelled | Tsur Baher (unofficial) |
Sur Baher
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 Sur Baher
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| Coordinates: 31°44′14″N 35°13′59″E / 31.73722°N 35.23306°ECoordinates: 31°44′14″N 35°13′59″E / 31.73722°N 35.23306°E | |
| Grid position | 172/127 PAL |
| District | Jerusalem |
| Population (2006) | |
| • Total | 15,000 |
| Name meaning | The wall of Bahir (Prominent) |
Sur Baher (Arabic: صور باهر, Hebrew: צור באהר), also Tsur Baher, is a Palestinian neighborhood on the southeastern outskirts of East Jerusalem. It is located east of Ramat Rachel and northeast of Har Homa. In 2006, Sur Baher had a population of 15,000.
During a general survey of the southern part of Sur Baher, ancient stone cut olive presses, wine presses, cisterns and a limekiln were found. A cave, with remains dating to the Iron Age I (12-11th centuries B.C.E.) were excavated at Khirbat Za‛kuka, south of Sur Baher.
A burial cave, dating to the end of the first century BCE and the first century CE have also been excavated. The cave contained remains of several ossuaries, in addition to arcosolia and benches.
Pottery vessels that dated to the Late Roman and Byzantine periods were excavated from an ancient quarry at Sur Baher.
Sur Baher, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the tax registers of 1596 "Sur Bahir" appeared as being in the Nahiya of Quds in the Liwa of Quds. It had a population of 29 households, all Muslim, and paid taxes on wheat barley, vineyards and fruit trees, goats and beehives.
In 1838, Edward Robinson noted Sur Bahil N 13° E from Tuqu'. French explorer Victor Guérin visited the place in 1863, and described Sur Baher as having about 400 inhabitants. An Ottoman village list of about 1870 found 46 houses and a population of 154, though the population count included only men. It further noted that it was an old, well-built and nice-looking village. In 1883, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Sur Bahir as "a stone village of moderate size, on a bare hill. On the north is a well in the valley, and there are rock-cut tombs above it to the west."
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