Al-Badhan Village

Site Description: The village of Al-Badhan is an extension of the neighboring village of Talouza from the northwest, and the village and the valley form a beautiful natural reserve. It is characterized by its topography, geological formations, and unique biodiversity that includes a vegetation cover of poplar trees, willow trees, bamboo, and others. Its greenery lasts throughout the year, and the lands of the valley abound with many types of reptiles, some types of other wild animals, and many types of resident and migratory birds. This valley is one of the tributaries of Wadi al-Fara'a. It meets with it at Al-Malaki Bridge, 5 km from the southeastern side. Forest lands surround the valley with about 1,500 dunums. The village lands include seven springs, the most important of which are Ein Sidra, Ain Al-Tabban, Ein Al-Jisr, Ein Hamad, and Ein Kadira.Historically, this valley was a natural passage for the oldest historical roads linking the Jordan Valley with the ports of the Mediterranean through Nablus due to the abundance of its springs, as these springs were the reason for human settlement on its banks, starting from the Stone Age. At the southwestern bank of the upper valley, on the present-day Nablus -Tubas road, there are remains of a ruin dating back to the Roman and Byzantine periods. However, no organized archaeological excavations were conducted to identify the details of this ruin, and it is called Khirbet Farweh. The village lands include a rock known as the Rock of Death at the top of the Sajur Valley, south of the village. According to the popular narrative, this rock gained its fame when the British forces carried out the death sentence against the Palestinian revolutionaries from the top of this rock during the revolution of 1936 AD.During the Ottoman period, dozens of grain mills were built that were powered by water flow. They were built with a unified design based on a water canal carried on a wall or high arches. The flow of water is concentrated using an upper opening that falls towards a wheel located at the bottom of the mill building so that its rotation leads to the process of the millstone by an arm installed on the center of the stone and the operating wheel. The inhabitants of the surrounding and distant villages used to rely on these mills to grind wheat and other grains. The use of these mills declined and disappeared after modern mills emerged.Currently, Al-Badhan is considered a tourist destination for all Palestinian cities; the parks on the banks of the valley receive large numbers of visitors during the summer season. However, the beautiful natural landscape of Al-Badhan Valley is threatened with distortion and disappearance due to rapid urban development, which is represented by the establishment of many tourist and private facilities at the expense of the valley's vegetation.