Jenin Attractions
West Bank
At the Arab town of Jenin, lying between Afula (18km/11mi) and Nablus (42km/26mi) on the West Bank of the Jordan, the old road going north from Jerusalem through the hills of Samaria runs through the Dotan valley into the Jezreel plain. From the earliest times, therefore, Jenin controlled this important line of communication.
History
In the 13th century the Mamelukes, fearing further incursions by the Crusaders, destroyed all the coastal towns and built Jenin up into a staging-point for caravans on the route between Damascus and Egypt. During the First World War Jenin was a station on the Afula-Nablus railway line, which it was planned to extend to Jerusalem and the Suez Canal; but when British forces gained control of the area the project was abandoned. Until the early 1930s the road from Jerusalem to Haifa and Galilee ran through Jenin. With the development of Haifa as a port and the construction of the coast road via Hadera, however, the importance of Jenin declined.
At the Arab town of Jenin, lying between Afula (18km/11mi) and Nablus (42km/26mi) on the West Bank of the Jordan, the old road going north from Jerusalem through the hills of Samaria runs through the Dotan valley into the Jezreel plain. From the earliest times, therefore, Jenin controlled this important line of communication.
History
In the 13th century the Mamelukes, fearing further incursions by the Crusaders, destroyed all the coastal towns and built Jenin up into a staging-point for caravans on the route between Damascus and Egypt. During the First World War Jenin was a station on the Afula-Nablus railway line, which it was planned to extend to Jerusalem and the Suez Canal; but when British forces gained control of the area the project was abandoned. Until the early 1930s the road from Jerusalem to Haifa and Galilee ran through Jenin. With the development of Haifa as a port and the construction of the coast road via Hadera, however, the importance of Jenin declined.
