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Nablus :
Being one of the largest West Bank towns and one of its main industrial and commercial centers, Nablus (also Nabulus) is the trading centre for the surrounding region in which grapes, olives, and wheat are grown and livestock is raised. The city was founded in the 1st century AD on the site of the ancient city of Shechem. It is now a typical Arab town with its houses built down the mountains' sides. The town was conquered by the Moslem-Arabs in 636, and except for a brief period during the Crusades, has remained predominantly Moslem to the present day. Formerly part of Jordan, Nabulus was occupied by Israeli forces as a result of the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. At the end of 1995, Israeli troops withdrew from the town, and the Palestinian National Authority assumed limited administrative control. In the area are the supposed sites of the tomb of the Hebrew patriarch Joseph and of the well of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob.
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