One of the best authenticated holy sites in Palestine is Jacob's Well, which lies just outside the eastern end of the town, below the little village of Sychar, and is the scene of Christ's conversation with the woman of Samaria. A Byzantine church, which was erected over the well, gave place to a Crusaders' church, on whose ruins a modern Orthodox church is in course of construction.
Nablus itself is long and narrow, and is traversed by two parallel suqs, containing several mosques which were formerly Byzantine or Crusaders' churches. The "Great Mosque," in the eastern part of the town, was originally a basilica built by Justinian and rebuilt by the Crusaders in the twelfth century. Its interesting eastern porch is well preserved. Other mosques of Crusading origin are the Jamiʾ al-Khadra and the Jamiʾ al-Nasr; the former is believed to stand on the spot where Joseph's brethren brought his coat to Jacob. The small, compact Samaritan quarter lies in the south-western part of the town, in that corner of Nablus which runs up the valley towards Mt. Gerizim.
Samaria.—Samaria, now the village of Sebastieh, stands on the 'egg-shaped' hill from which the ancient Jewish town took its name of "watch-hill." Samaria was founded by Omri, King of Israel, remained the capital of the Northern Kingdom until its capture by Sargon in 722 B.C., and, in the days of the Maccabees, gave its name to all Central Palestine. Herod the Great rebuilt it on an ambitious scale, endowed it with handsome monuments, made of it a pleasure resort, and, in compliment to Augustus, gave to it the name of Sebaste, which it still bears.
Excavations were conducted at Samaria by the University of Harvard in 1908–9. The chief discoveries were, on the summit, the foundations of a large temple built by Herod the Great, including the grand stairway (still visible), an altar, and a torso of Augustus. In the same area deeper cuttings exposed older buildings, some of the masonry of which was shown to be of the period of Omri and Ahab. On a broad terrace, north-east, there were uncovered the
