Nablus Governorate
Template:Infobox Palestinian Authority muni Balata al-Balad (Arabic: بلاطة البلد) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in the northeastern West Bank, located Template:Km to mi east of Nablus. The urban area was made of 25 dunams in 1945, and increased to more than 100 dunams in 1980.
The village's name is Balata, the name of an ancient Arab village, which was preserved by local residents.[1][2] Its pseudonymn, al-Balad (meaning "the village"), is used to distinguish it from the Palestinian refugee camp of Balata which lies to the west and was established in 1950.[3][2]
The village's name is transcribed in the writings of Eusebius (d. circa 339) and Jerome (d. 420), as Balanus or Balata.[4][5] In the Samartian chronicles, its Arabic names are transcribed as Balata and Shejr al-Kheir (meaning "tree of grace").[4] In the writings of Yakut (d. 1229), the Syrian geographer, its name is transcribed as al-Bulāṭa.[6]
One theory holds that balata is a derivation of the Aramaic word Balut, meaning acorn (or in Arabic, oak), while another theory holds that it is a derivation of the Byzantine-Roman era, from the Greek word platanos, meaning terebinth, a type of tree that grew around the village spring.[1][2]
A suburb of the city of Nablus, the village is located on Tell Balata, and covers about one-third of the tell, overlooking a vast plain to the east.[7][8][2]
The history of the village of Balata is tied to that Jacob's Well and Joseph's Tomb. Benjamin of Tudela, the Navarrese traveller, who visited the site in 12th century, places it "A sabbath-way distance from Sichem," and says it contains Joseph's sepulcher.[9] The church built around Jacob's Well and the lands of the village of Balata belonged to the Benedictine nuns of Bethany in the 12th century.[10] Written documentation from this time of the Crusades indicates that, Balata, also known as Balathas, was a Frankish settlement.[11]
