World Heritage Identification Number: 1492
World Heritage since: 2014
Category: Cultural Heritage
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: Yes
Country: 🇵🇸 State of Palestine
Continent: Asia
UNESCO World Region: Arab States
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Palestine's Battir: A Terraced Oasis in the West Bank
The cultural landscape of southern Jerusalem, Battir, is a unique agricultural area located in the Central Highlands between Nablus and Hebron, approximately 6.4 kilometers west of Bethlehem. This site, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014, offers a fascinating glimpse into the rich history and traditional farming practices of Palestine.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
This site is located a few kilometres south-west of Jerusalem, in the Central Highlands between Nablus and Hebron. The Battir hill landscape comprises a series of farmed valleys, known as widian, with characteristic stone terraces, some of which are irrigated for market garden production, while others are dry and planted with grapevines and olive trees. The development of terrace farming in such a mountainous region is supported by a network of irrigation channels fed by underground sources. A traditional system of distribution is then used to share the water collected through this network between families from the nearby village of Battir.
Encyclopedia Record: Battir
Battir is a Palestinian village in the Bethlehem Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the West Bank, 6.4 km west of Bethlehem, and southwest of Jerusalem. In 2017, the village had a population of 4,696.Additional Site Details
Area: 348.83 hectares
(v) — Outstanding example of traditional human settlement
Coordinates: 31.7163888889 , 35.1588888889
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© Ali.batha, CC BY-SA 4.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
