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43-475: Beitin was established in the mid-19th century by settlers from the nearby Burqa . It stands on the site of the ancient town and biblical sanctuary of Bethel , which was left abandoned after the Crusader period. The area remained uninhabited until the late Ottoman period, when modern Beitin was founded. There are several springs around Beitin, which is known for its olive, almond , fig and plum groves. Beitin

86-565: A Jordanian census found the population to be 1,017. After the Six-Day War in 1967, Beitin has, with the rest of the West Bank, been held under Israeli occupation . The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 958, of whom 134 originated from the Israeli territory. After the 1995 accords , 19,1% of the village land is classified as Area B , while the remaining 80.9%

129-468: A bare hillside, with a spring in the valley to the south." In 1896 the population of Burka was estimated to be about 270 people. In the 1922 census of Palestine , conducted by the British Mandate authorities , Burqa had a population of 268, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census , to 320, still all Muslim, in 66 houses. In the 1945 statistics , the population was 380, all Muslims, while

172-663: A religious war with our neighbors. We won't let them desecrate mosques. We won't let them harm Jews or Arabs." The ruins of the Byzantine church are known in Arabic as "al-Muqater" or "Khirbet al-Kenise" ("Ruins of the Church"). According to Röhricht , when the Crusaders arrived, they found a ruined church. They built another and placed it first under the Abbey of St. Joseph of Arimathea , later under

215-404: A state of ruin since the fall of the Crusader kingdom . Beitin was absent from Ottoman censuses of the 16th century. When visited by Robinson in 1838 and Schwartz before 1845, it still lay in ruins. However, by Guérin 's visit in 1863, it had become inhabited, with its residents originating from the nearby Burqa . After Beitin was reestablished, the village came under the administration of

258-470: A total of 55 houses (thus excluding women and children). In 1882 the PEF 's Survey of Western Palestine described Beitin as a village "built on the side of a flat spur which rises slightly on the north. On the south-east is a flat dell, with good fig and pomegranate gardens, and there are other fig-trees round the village and among the houses. The cottages have a ruinous appearance, with rough stone walls. There

301-633: Is mined from chalk deposits both above ground and underground . Chalk mining boomed during the Industrial Revolution , due to the need for chalk products such as quicklime and bricks . Most people first encounter chalk in school where it refers to blackboard chalk , which was originally made of mineral chalk, since it readily crumbles and leaves particles that stick loosely to rough surfaces, allowing it to make writing that can be readily erased. Blackboard chalk manufacturers now may use mineral chalk, other mineral sources of calcium carbonate, or

344-510: Is perennial ..." In 1896 the population of Betin was estimated to be about 360 persons. In 1907, small gardens and a few old tombs were found in the vicinity, and the Muslim population was known for its strength and fearlessness. In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities , Baitin had a population of 446; all Muslims , increasing at the time of the 1931 census to 566, still all Muslim, in 135 houses. In

387-610: Is a fine-textured, earthy type of limestone distinguished by its light colour, softness, and high porosity. It is composed mostly of tiny fragments of the calcite shells or skeletons of plankton , such as foraminifera or coccolithophores . These fragments mostly take the form of calcite plates ranging from 0.5 to 4 microns in size, though about 10% to 25% of a typical chalk is composed of fragments that are 10 to 100 microns in size. The larger fragments include intact plankton skeletons and skeletal fragments of larger organisms, such as molluscs , echinoderms , or bryozoans . Chalk

430-404: Is a soft, white, porous , sedimentary carbonate rock . It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor . Chalk is common throughout Western Europe , where deposits underlie parts of France, and steep cliffs are often seen where they meet the sea in places such as

473-508: Is also the only form of limestone that commonly shows signs of compaction. Flint (a type of chert ) is very common as bands parallel to the bedding or as nodules in seams , or linings to fractures , embedded in chalk. It is probably derived from sponge spicules or other siliceous organisms as water is expelled upwards during compaction. Flint is often deposited around larger fossils such as Echinoidea which may be silicified (i.e. replaced molecule by molecule by flint). Chalk

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516-428: Is applied to the hands and feet to remove perspiration and reduce slipping. Chalk may also be used as a house construction material instead of brick or wattle and daub : quarried chalk was cut into blocks and used as ashlar , or loose chalk was rammed into blocks and laid in mortar. There are still houses standing which have been constructed using chalk as the main building material. Most are pre- Victorian though

559-518: Is commonly used as a drying agent to obtain better grip by gymnasts and rock climbers. Glazing putty mainly contains chalk as a filler in linseed oil . Chalk and other forms of limestone may be used for their properties as a base . Chalk is a source of quicklime by thermal decomposition , or slaked lime following quenching of quicklime with water. In agriculture , chalk is used for raising pH in soils with high acidity . Small doses of chalk can also be used as an antacid . Additionally,

602-428: Is defined as Area C land (full Israeli control). Beitin village land has also been taken in order to construct the illegal Israeli outpost Givat Asaf . On 19 December 2011, Israeli settlers were accused of carrying out a second price tag attack in only four days, in which five Palestinian-owned cars were burnt and the walls of several houses were sprayed with graffiti. During the first incident (15 December 2011),

645-743: Is identified with the ancient settlement of Bethel , and preserves its ancient name. The site was first settled during the Chalcolithic period. Sherds from the Early , Intermediate , Middle and Late Bronze Age , as well as the Iron Age I and II, the Persian , Hellenistic , Roman , the Byzantine and Crusader / Ayyubid periods have been found. At the ruins of the Crusader watchtower ( al-Burj ), residential remains from

688-571: Is now usually made of talc (magnesium silicate). Chalk beds form important petroleum reservoirs in the North Sea and along the Gulf Coast of North America. In southeast England, deneholes are a notable example of ancient chalk pits. Such bell pits may also mark the sites of ancient flint mines, where the prime object was to remove flint nodules for stone tool manufacture. The surface remains at Cissbury are one such example, but perhaps

731-400: Is one square white house in two stories, which is visible from a great distance. The ground is very open, and the slopes gentle; the village slopes down gradually south-east. The surrounding ground is quite bare of trees, of white chalk , very barren and stony on the south; of hard limestone cropping up on the north; the fields divided off by low drystone walls. The contrast of the grey rocks,

774-586: Is so common in Cretaceous marine beds that the Cretaceous Period was named for these deposits. The name Cretaceous was derived from Latin creta , meaning chalk . Some deposits of chalk were formed after the Cretaceous. The Chalk Group is a European stratigraphic unit deposited during the late Cretaceous Period. It forms the famous White Cliffs of Dover in Kent , England, as well as their counterparts of

817-401: Is typically almost pure calcite, CaCO 3 , with just 2% to 4% of other minerals. These are usually quartz and clay minerals , though collophane (cryptocrystalline apatite , a phosphate mineral) is also sometimes present, as nodules or as small pellets interpreted as fecal pellets. In some chalk beds, the calcite has been converted to dolomite , CaMg(CO 3 ) 2 , and in a few cases

860-532: The Mutasarrif ("Governorate") of Jerusalem. In the early 19th century, people from Transjordan and other places migrated to Beitin and built a mosque near the site of the old church. In 1838 Edward Robinson noted Beitin as a place "in ruins or deserted," located immediately north of Jerusalem. In 1863 Victor Guérin found the village to have 400 inhabitants, while an Ottoman village list from around 1870 showed that Beitin had an adult male population of 140, in

903-508: The Nahiya of Quds of the Liwa of Quds . It had a population of 28 Muslim households. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olives, fruit trees, goats and/or beehives; a total of 4,940 akçe . In 1838 Edward Robinson noted it as a Muslim village, Burka , located in the area immediately north of Jerusalem, seeing it "high up on

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946-424: The 1945 statistics the population was 690 Muslims, while the total land area was 4,764 dunams , according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 1,348 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 1,853 for cereals, while 38 dunams were classified as built-up areas. In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements , Beitin came under Jordanian rule. In 1961,

989-723: The Cap Blanc Nez on the other side of the Dover Strait . The Champagne region of France is mostly underlain by chalk deposits, which contain artificial caves used for wine storage . Some of the highest chalk cliffs in the world occur at Jasmund National Park in Germany and at Møns Klint in Denmark . Chalk deposits are also found in Cretaceous beds on other continents, such as the Austin Chalk , Selma Group , and Niobrara Formations of

1032-525: The Dover cliffs on the Kent coast of the English Channel . Chalk is mined for use in industry, such as for quicklime , bricks and builder's putty , and in agriculture , for raising pH in soils with high acidity . It is also used for " blackboard chalk " for writing and drawing on various types of surfaces, although these can also be manufactured from other carbonate-based minerals, or gypsum . Chalk

1075-655: The Mamluk period were discovered. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Bethel was mentioned in 1 Maccabees , Josephus ' writings, and in several patristic texts. The town was garrisoned by Bacchides (during the Maccabean revolt ) and later by Vespasian (during the First Jewish–Roman War ). In Byzantine times, Bethel held annual festivals on October 18. The population was Eastern Orthodox Christian and monks from

1118-558: The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Beitin had a population of over 3,050 inhabitants in 2006. In 2007, a PCBS census recorded a population of 2,143 (1,128 men and 1,015 women). There were 717 homes in the village and the average household size consisted of 4.9 family members. Burqa, Ramallah Burqa ( Arabic : بُرقة ) is a town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate , located east of Ramallah in

1161-573: The Sinai Peninsula , particularly Zosimas of Palestine , were known to have visited the town. A church dating from the fifth century CE was found at the site. Bethel was abandoned after the 1187 defeat of the Crusaders at the hands of Saladin and the ensuing destruction of Christian sites. It remained obscure and unmentioned by various sources from the 13th to the 19th century, including Yaqut , Mujir al-Din , and European travelers, likely indicating

1204-527: The Six-Day War in 1967, Burqa has been under Israeli occupation . After the 1995 accords , 8.5% of the village land was defined as Area B land, while the remaining 91.5% was defined as Area C . Israel has confiscated land from Burqa for the construction of the Israeli settlement of Kokhav Ya'akov . The outpost Migron, Mateh Binyamin was located east of Burqa, on land registered as privately owned by inhabitants of Burqa and Deir Dibwan . In 2012 Migron

1247-615: The Canons of the Holy Sepulcher . The ruins of the church were drawn in the 1880s. Another ruin, called "al-Burj Beitin" ("the Tower of Beitin") or simply al-Burj is located in the western part of the village. They were also drawn in the 1880s. The ruins of the Burj are about 1 meter tall, and apparently built on the older ruins of a Byzantine monastery. Some have believed that it was constructed on

1290-698: The North American interior. Chalk is also found in western Egypt (Khoman Formation) and western Australia ( Miria Formation ). Chalk of Oligocene to Neogene age has been found in drill cores of rock under the Pacific Ocean at Stewart Arch in the Solomon Islands . There are layers of chalk, containing Globorotalia , in the Nicosia Formation of Cyprus , which formed during the Pliocene . Chalk

1333-537: The assailants not only vandalized a mosque, but also attacked an IDF military base in the West Bank, injuring a top Israeli commander. According to witnesses of the second incident, the Israeli army dispersed the settlers without arresting any of them, presumably also those who attacked the Israeli commander, although four days earlier the incident had prompted Israeli Prime-Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu , to say: "We won't let them attack our soldiers. We won't let them ignite

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1376-548: The chalk came mostly form low-magnesium calcite skeletons, so the sediments were already in the form of highly stable low-magnesium calcite when deposited. This is in contrast with most other limestones, which formed from high-magnesium calcite or aragonite that rapidly converted to the more stable low-magnesium calcite after deposition, resulting in the early cementation of such limestones. In chalk, absence of this calcium carbonate conversion process prevented early cementation, which partially accounts for chalk's high porosity. Chalk

1419-485: The dolomitized chalk has been dedolomitized back to calcite. Chalk is highly porous, with typical values of porosity ranging from 35 to 47 per cent. While it is similar in appearance to both gypsum and diatomite , chalk is identifiable by its hardness, fossil content, and its reaction to acid (it produces effervescence on contact). In Western Europe, chalk was formed in the Late Cretaceous Epoch and

1462-437: The early Palaeocene Epoch (between 100 and 61 million years ago). It was deposited on extensive continental shelves at depths between 100 and 600 metres (330 and 1,970 ft), during a time of nonseasonal (likely arid) climate that reduced the amount of erosion from nearby exposed rock. The lack of nearby erosion explains the high purity of chalk. The coccolithophores, foraminifera, and other microscopic organisms from which

1505-425: The hill-side". In 1863 Victor Guérin found it to contain about thirty houses. A Muslim shrine devoted to Sheikh Youseph was also noted. An Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed that Burka had a population of 152, with a total of 31 houses, though the population count included men, only. In 1883, the PEF 's Survey of Western Palestine described Burkah as "a good-sized village standing high on

1548-528: The mineral gypsum ( calcium sulfate ). While gypsum-based blackboard chalk is the lowest cost to produce, and thus widely used in the developing world , use of carbonate-based chalk produces larger particles and thus less dust, and it is marketed as "dustless chalk". Coloured chalks, pastel chalks, and sidewalk chalk (shaped into larger sticks and often coloured), used to draw on sidewalks , streets, and driveways , are primarily made of gypsum rather than calcium carbonate chalk. Magnesium carbonate chalk

1591-557: The most famous is the extensive complex at Grimes Graves in Norfolk . Chalk was traditionally used in recreation. In field sports, such as tennis played on grass, powdered chalk was used to mark the boundary lines of the playing field or court. If a ball hits the line, a cloud of chalk or pigment dust will be visible. In recent years, powdered chalk has been replaced with titanium dioxide . In gymnastics, rock-climbing, weightlifting and tug of war , chalk — now usually magnesium carbonate —

1634-523: The northern West Bank , Palestine . According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,047 inhabitants in the 2017 census. Burqa is located 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) (horizontally) east of Ramallah . It is bordered by Deir Dibwan to the east and north, Beitin to the north, Al-Bireh to the west, and Mukhmas and Kafr 'Aqab to the south. In 1596, Burqa appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in

1677-548: The red ploughland and the dark green figs is very striking. The remains of a good-sized tower exist towards the north, and on the south the walls of a church of Crusading date, once dedicated to St. Joseph . The population is stated at 400. The place is supplied from a fine spring on the south, which wells up in a circular basin. The spring is double, and was surrounded with a large reservoir, 314 feet long north-west and south-east, by 217 feet; of massive stones. The eastern and southern walls are standing about 10 feet high. The spring

1720-414: The site where Abraham built an altar . According to biblical scholar Edward Robinson who visited Palestine in the 19th century, al-Burj Beitin consisted of dilapidated stones that used to form part of a fortress and a Greek church. Al-Burj was used as a watch tower by the Crusaders. In 1997, Palestinian refugees accounted for exactly 30% of the population, which was 1,510 at the time. According to

1763-436: The small particles of chalk make it a substance ideal for cleaning and polishing. For example, toothpaste commonly contains small amounts of chalk, which serves as a mild abrasive . Polishing chalk is chalk prepared with a carefully controlled grain size, for very fine polishing of metals. French chalk (also known as tailor's chalk) is traditionally a hard chalk used to make temporary markings on cloth, mainly by tailors . It

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1806-425: The total land area was 6,001 dunams , according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 1,297 dunams were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,460 for cereals, while 22 dunams were classified as built-up areas. In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements , Burqa came under Jordanian rule . The Jordanian census of 1961 found 582 inhabitants. Since

1849-415: Was evacuated and since then the area is deserted. The village often experiences harassment from settlers that includes armed invasions of the village and attacks on residents,burning cars and houses and destruction of crops and livestock. In August 2023, a resident of the village was killed by a settler who entered with a herd a private field belonging to the local resident. Chalk Chalk

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