al-Nahr

The village, a twin of al-Tall, was situated on a sandy, slightly elevated mound which, like many other tells in Palestine, was the site of an ancient settlement. Recent investigations by Aaron Kempinsky indicate that both al-Nahr and its sister village of al-Tall, to the west, stood on archaeological debris that dated back to the eighteenth century B.C. Al-Nahr was established on an archaeological site called Tall al-Qahwa ('the mound of coffee'); the 1904 Ottoman Yearbook for Beirut referred to the site as belonging to the villages of Tall and Qahwa. It was in the eastern part of the coastal plain in the Galilee region and lay on the Tarshiha–Nahariyya–Acre highway. It had a rectangular layout and a southeast–northwest orientation. Its houses were built from a variety of materials―stone blocks and cement or mud mortar or reinforced concrete―and were bunched close together. Al-Nahr's entire population was Muslim. Agriculture and animal husbandry were the principal sources of livelihood for the villagers. In 1944/45 a total of 2,066 dunums was devoted to citrus and bananas and 1,094 dunums were allocated to cereals; 1,937 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, of which 30 dunums were planted in olive trees.