The Shrine of Sheikh Sha’la or Shu'ala

Site Description: The historic castle is located on one of the mountain peaks of the Nablus mountain chain, approximately 3 km east of the road linking Nablus with Jenin, passing through the village of Al-Naqura and within its lands. The most critical factors in establishing this castle were its height, which reaches about 560 meters above sea level, and it overlooks a wide geographical area, in addition to the severity of its terrain and slopes, as it formed a natural barrier in front of the aggressors.The castle gained additional importance due to its mediation between Sebastia and Nablus, the most important historical city in the region. At the end of the mountain's western slope, the spring of Ein Haroun is located, which was and still is the only source of water on which the city of Sebastia relied.Archeological evidence represented by architectural, pottery, and mosaic elements indicates that the site was inhabited during the Roman period. The place was reused as a church during the fifth century AD. Its dimensions are 20×17.5 m, and it bore the name of the Prophet Elias. The church had many residential buildings and a defensive wall surrounding the top of the mountain. A Greek inscription still towers over the western entrance to the castle, while during the Mamluk period, a building was erected in the form of a small castle, as it was built on the ruins of the church. As for the shrine, it is a small, square-shaped, ruined room, the remains of which are still present at the western end of the hill.It is said that the shrine was built between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries during the late Ottoman period. The castle was restored by one of the local rulers of the Al-Kayed family, so he added an extra room attached to the northern wall of the building. As for the western section, an open yard was attached to it, in the middle of which there was a water well. The yard was connected to several random rooms and livestock. Another floor was added on the roof of the castle, which was used as a residence, and it consisted of an open yard, three rooms, and an iwan built in the same style as the palaces of the Throne Villages that were prevalent in the late Ottoman period.At a later period, the upper floor and all the rooms added on the ground floor collapsed, and most of the building stones were moved to erect new buildings in the surrounding villages. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, in cooperation with the Naqura Village Council, carried out cleaning and restoration works at the site to rehabilitate it, as an important historical and archaeological landmark located on the line of tourist routes.