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22-493: Zorah was situated on the crest of a hill overlooking the valley of Sorek . It lies at an elevation of about 1,150 feet (350 m) above sea-level. It is located 23 kilometers west of Jerusalem near Nahal Sorek . Zorah was mentioned together with Ajalon in the Amarna letters as a city attacked by the Apiru . Zorah has been identified with the biblical Zoreah ( Joshua 15:33 ), and

44-526: A pine forest by the Jewish National Fund . Kibbutz Tzora is now located nearby, at the foot of Zorah mountain, on its southern side. Caves, tombs, cisterns and a winepress were discovered at Tel Tzora. Two winepresses were carved into the rock, one of which was paved with mosaic. A rock-hewn altar was found just below the tell. It has been nicknamed "Manoah's Altar", after Samson's father. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from

66-441: A population 181 Muslims, while nearby Hartuv had a population of 124 Jews, changing in the 1931 census to 253; 252 Muslims and 1 Jew. In the 1944/45 statistics , the village had a population of 350 Muslims, and 403 dunams of land. A total of 61 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, 279 dunams were for cereals, while 18 dunams were built-up (urban) land. Artuf, along with four other villages, were overtaken by

88-429: A population of 110. The villagers paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat , barley and fruit, as well as on goats, beehives and vineyards . In 1863 Victor Guérin found the village to be situated on a small hill, and having 150 inhabitants. Socin found from an official Ottoman village list from about 1870 that Artuf had 14 houses and a population of 40, though the population count included men only. It

110-422: A publication now in the public domain :  Easton, Matthew George (1897). " Zorah ". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons. Brook of Sorek Naḥal Sorek ( Hebrew : נחל שורק , lit.   'Brook of Sorek'; Arabic : وادي الصرار , romanized :  Wadi al-Sirar ), also Soreq , is one of the largest, most important drainage basins in

132-457: Is a small stone house that is used as a warehouse; it stands by the site of the former mosque. On the western slopes of the site is a circular structure with no roof that was formerly used as a lime kiln (kabbara). The village cemetery, to the west, has been levelled; only one or two graves remain on its eastern edge. Part of the British police headquarters is still standing. Elsewhere, the village site

154-544: Is covered with scattered stone rubble. Olive, fig, and cypress trees grow on the village site, especially in the west and north." Two archaeological sites nearby are Khirbat Marmita, about 1 km east of the village, and al-Burj, on the site of Hartuv to the southwest. Excavations have been carried out on Khirbat al-Burj by the Hebrew University since 1985. Excavations in Hartuv revealed an architectural complex dating to

176-550: Is the birthplace of Samson . Judges 13:2 states: Samson's grave is recorded as being near there ( Judges 16:31 ), and which the historian Josephus says was in a village called Sarasat. In Joshua 19:41 , Zorah is mentioned in the allotment of the Tribe of Judah , on the border with the Tribe of Dan . It was most likely the Danites who occupied Zorah. According to the Book of Chronicles, it

198-560: The Avshalom Cave Nature Reserve near Beit Shemesh, to moshav Nes Harim . Near the mouth of the Sorek River are two large seawater desalination plants, Palmachim and Sorek, the latter being, when used at full capacity, the largest of its kind in the world (as of 2013). 31°45′21″N 35°03′1″E  /  31.75583°N 35.05028°E  / 31.75583; 35.05028 Artuf Artuf ( Arabic : عرتوف )

220-735: The Jaffa–Jerusalem line , decided to use Nahal Sorek as the main route for the line. The line was inaugurated in 1892, following Nahal Sorek until its junction with the Valley of Rephaim , after which it follows the Valley of Rephaim into Jerusalem. While the Tel Aviv-to-Jerusalem high-speed railway line is designed to avoid the Nahal Sorek route and shorten the line, the older railway along Nahal Sorek has been refurbished and remains in use. It connects

242-613: The Judean Hills . It is mentioned in the Book of Judges 16:4 of the Bible as the border between the ancient Philistines and the Tribe of Dan of the ancient Israelites . It is known in Arabic as Wadi es-Sarār , sometimes spelled Surar, and by various names along different segments, such as Wadi Qalunya near Motza , Wadi al-Tahuna, and Nahr Rubin further downstream. Folk etymology mentioned in

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264-560: The Midrash ( Numbers Rabbah 9) states that the sorek is a "fruitless tree" (the word ריק req means "empty" in Hebrew), implying a moral lesson and metaphor suggesting that Samson's involvement in his affair with Delilah was eventually "fruitless". Etymology suggests that "sorek" means "special vine" and refers to the grapes and wines grown in the area. Nahal Sorek was the place where Delilah lived, and Samson came to meet her for

286-576: The Israeli Harel Brigade on 17–18 July 1948 in Operation Dani . The villages had been on the front line since April 1948 and most of the inhabitants of these villages had already left the area. Many of those who stayed fled when Israeli forces attacked and the few who remained at each village were expelled. After the establishment of the State of Israel, a ma'abara transit camp was established on

308-737: The country's two largest cities and its main international airport, running in a westerly-easterly direction between Tel Aviv , Ben Gurion International Airport , Lod , Ramla , Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem. However, today the rail line mainly serves as a scenic route used by tourists. Several small water reservoirs exist along its route, notably near Tal Shahar and Yesodot . Waterfalls are located on several of its tributaries, including Ayanot Dekalim in Beit Shemesh , Ein Sifla on Nahal HaMe'ara, and others. The Nahal Sorek Nature Reserve, first declared in 1965, and since expanded, spans over 11000 dunams , from

330-713: The first time. It was also the place she enticed him to tell her the secret of his strength, and where he was eventually captured by the Philistines: And Samson went to Gaza ... And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the brook/valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her: 'Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him ... In 1921, lands that bounded Nahal Sorek ( Wadi es Surar / Wad Issarar ) which passed to

352-439: The second Muslim caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab . The tomb of a local Muslim sage named Shaykh ´Ali al-Ghimadi stood on the outskirts of the village. About half of the villagers worked in agriculture, while the rest worked in the nearby Bab al-Wad station, on the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway . The agricultural land extended west of the village, where fruit trees and almond trees were planted. In the 1922 census of Palestine Artuf had

374-416: The settlers refused to convert, the project was abandoned. It was resettled in 1895, but destroyed in the 1929 riots . In 1896 the population of Artuf was estimated to be about 135 persons. Most houses were built of stone and adobe ; a few were built of stone and cement and had domed roofs. The villagers, who were all Muslims , worshipped in a mosque called the al-Umari Mosque, perhaps in reference to

396-515: The site for Jewish immigrants, and a cement factory was opened to provide employment. In 1950, Moshav Naham was built on Hartuv's land. According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi , the village remaining structures in 1992 were: "One stone house, located outside the Jewish settlement of Nacham, has been expanded, and is now inhabited by a Jewish family. In the middle of the Jewish settlement

418-452: The south of Artuf were designated as "Mara land," meaning, pasture land reserved primarily for the use of the adjoining villages. In the 19th century, Nahal Sorek served as an important connection between the two major cities in the area, Jaffa and Jerusalem . Because railways at the time were reliant on water sources, several surveyors who planned the first railway in the Middle East ,

440-535: Was a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem foothills depopulated in 1948. It was situated 21.5 kilometers (13.4 mi) west of Jerusalem on a high plateau, surrounded by plains on the south, east, and west. The village was on a secondary road that linked it to the main road to Jerusalem. Under the Ottoman Empire , in 1596, Artuf was a village in a nahiya ("subdistrict") of Ramla, part of Liwa of Gaza with

462-591: Was also noted that it was half hour from Sar'a . Hartmann found that Artuf had 140 houses. The PEF 's Survey of Western Palestine in 1883 described Artuf as "a small village built on a low hill, with an open valley to the west. There is a pool ( Hufiret Artuf) in the valley, whence the village obtains its water. Olive trees occur round the place. In 1883, a group of English missionaries purchased land in Artuf to establish an agricultural colony, called Hartuv , for Jews whom they hoped to convert to Christianity. When

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484-419: Was fortified by Rehoboam ( 2 Chronicles 11:10 ). The Palestinian village Sar'a was located in the presumed location of the ancient town. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . Conder and Kitchener , describing the site in 1881, said that, with the exception of the olive groves to the north of the village, the low hill on which the village lies is "bare and white," a place now planted with

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