Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines – Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir

Battir lies about 7 km south-west of Jerusalem in the central highlands between Nablus and Hebron. The valleys around the village, the widian, are lined with stone terraces: those near the village are irrigated for vegetables, while drier ones farther out are planted with vines and olive trees. Limited excavation and survey have found traces of the Middle and Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and in Roman times Battir stood on the main road between Gaza and Jerusalem. In 2007 remains of a settlement and farming tools from the Caliphate period of 636 to 661 were found.

Near the village, channels fed by underground springs carry water into a reservoir known as the Roman pool. The water is shared among the village's eight families, each taking its turn in an eight-day cycle, with a stick used to measure the depth of the pool so that the shares are fair. Around 230 stone watchtowers, the manatir, stand on the farther hills; many were once lived in during the harvest season.

Under the British Mandate, from 1917 to 1948, Battir became a stop on the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway, which tied it closely to Jerusalem's economy. The 1949 armistice drew the line along the railway and cut the village off from Jerusalem. In 2014 the World Heritage Committee inscribed the landscape, nominated by Palestine on an emergency basis, and placed it at the same time on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The nomination cited a planned separation wall that could cut farmers off from fields they had worked for centuries.