Nablus is a Palestinian city at the heart of the north, lies on the crossroad between east and west, north and south, and that strategic position made the city a lively trading centre.
It was built 5600 years ago by Canaanites. They built it at the east of the current place between Ibal and Jerzim mounts. It was called "Shechem" which means the high place or the shoulder, because the city was built in a high place on the shoulder of Jerzim mount. Then, after nearly 3000 years, the city was destroyed by the Romans, but some of Shechem walls still present until now. Romans rebuilt the city soon afterwards, and called it "Flavia Neapolis" where Flavia is the surname of the rebuilder emperor, and Neapolis means the new city. When Arabs conquered the city, the name was Arabized to Nablus.
Nablus have played an important role in the Islamic period. It was at first one of the cities of Jind of Palestine. During ottoman rule, Nablus was following the state of Beruit and it was the centre of the Sinjuk of Nablus. Most of the old city buildings were built during the ottoman rule, although the main features of the city were built before that. The oldest Islamic building in the city is Al-Khadra Mosque, as it was built during the early Islamic period nearly a millennium ago.
The civilizations which passed on the city have left lots of remarkable ruins and remains. Going to Roman and Byzantine periods, the Roman theatre inside the city in Ras AlAin is the largest in Palestine. There are some places that were hidden under the ground for ages, but were discovered recently. Some of these are the column street under some places in the old city, since Nablus was originally a roman city. Parts of the Roman city with water channel were also found underground under Dhafir Almasri School in the old city, and that place was turned into AlQasaba museum. Some old houses in the old city were built from big old rock blocks taken from old Roman buildings or from Ras AlAin Roman theatre blocks.
The Islamic period, especially Ottoman, had contributed the most in giving the old city its current features as mentioned before. For example, the symbol of the city: the clock tower was built in the birthday of Sultan Abdul-Hamid in 1318 Hijri, 1900 AD. Al-Masjid Al-Salahi Al-Kabir, which is the biggest mosque in the old city, was built by Ayyubid Salah Al-Din on the ruins of a byzantine cathedral in that area. The mosque has a beautiful mixture between Roman and Islamic architecture, since it was built from beautiful large rocks and marble columns with a nice pool at the centre of the mosque yard. There are some other ancient mosques and buildings in the city that have a great architectural and cultural value, too, for example: Al-Kadir Mosque, Deir Khanfur church, Aal Tuqan Palace, Al-Khan Souq and other Souqs and beautiful buildings.
A very important thing to mention is that Nablus contains the oldest and the smallest religious group in the world, the Samaritans. Their religion is a little similar to Judaism but different in other things. Their holy place is mount Jerzim. They have some old remains on the top of the mount. They live mostly in Yasmeena Haret or on the top of mount Jerzim. The special thing in Samaritans is that they only exist in Nablus and in the area of Holon near Tel Aviv.
Away from buildings, the position of the city between two mounts gave the city a great amount of water springs even in the old city itself like Al-Qaryon spring. Some springs were giving water in an inappropriate place, so water routes were built so that people can use water from these springs, like Sabeel Al-Salahi near Al-Hanbali Mosque.
Talking about water, Nablus contains ten of the 37 Turkish baths in Palestine. Most don’t now function like before, but two are still active till now which are Al-Shifaa Bath and Al-Hanaa Bath. If you want to try Nabulsi soap, then go to these baths. In these baths you'll go into changing room at first, then the cold room, after that the warm room, and finally the hot room which is like sauna.
Nablus isn’t just buildings and remains. It isn’t just a name. It isn’t just soap and sweets, it is filled with helpful sweet people, sweeter than the Kunafa they make. They have their own culture, traditions, dialect and costumes. Their traditions are unique but quite similar to Damascus traditions. For that and for the similarity in the city structure, Nablus was called the small Damascus.
see the Album I made about Nablus
