al-Nuqayb

The village was located on the eastern shore of Lake Tiberias in a relatively flat area, dominated by the Golan Heights; the city of Tiberias could be seen across the lake, in the west. Wadi al-Muzaffar flowed into the lake 1 km to the north of the site, and 3 km to the north was the deep Wadi Samakh. There were also two hot springs north of the village. To the east of the village was the fortress of Qal'at al-Hisn (212242), which was probably built on the site of the ancient city of Hippos. The Greek name for this city meant 'livestock' (which was also the meaning of the city's alternative, Aramaic name, Susitha). Hippos was one of the cities of the Decapolis, or league of ten Syrian-Greek cities, in the Roman and Byzantine periods. The fortress contained ruins of the ancient city, such as walls, roads, a church, other buildings, cisterns, and burial grounds. During the 1880s all 13,000 dunums of the lands of al-Nuqayb were purchased by Baha' Allah, the leader of the Babi religious sect (which later became the Baha'i religion; see al-Manshiyya, Acre sub-disctrict). The people of al-Nuqayb continued to farm their lands as tenants, however, until at least the 1920s, when the Baha'is sold all but 200 dunums of the land; most of it was sold to the JNF.

Modern al-Nuqayb was 1.5 km from the Syrian-Palestinian border. It had a rectangular outline, with its houses dispersed along the coast of the lake. It was named after its inhabitants, the 'Arab al-Nuqayb, who were of Bedouin stock. Some of the villagers still lived in tents but others had built houses of stone and mud, stone and cement, or concrete. They were predominantly Muslim, although in 1931 six people belonging to the Baha'i sect lived in the village. Their main economic activities were livestock breeding and cultivating grain and vegetables. In 1944/45 a total of 797 dunums was allotted to cereals; 131 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Archaeological sites around al-Nuqayb included four khirbas.