Saydun

The village stood on the east bank of Wadi Saydun, a tributary of Wadi al-Sarar, on the eastern edge of the coastal plain. Saydun was south of the southern branch of the Ramla-Jerusalem highway. In the 1830s it was a large village, according to Robinson, who passed by it in 1838 , but by the late nineteenth century it was described as a small village built of adobe bricks. Later houses, constructed of mud, cement, and stone, were clustered together along the above-mentioned road and also along paths that led to other villages. The population was predominantly Muslim. The village had a few small shops and a maqam (shrine) for a local religious figure. A well on the north side supplied it with drinking water. The villagers worked mostly in rainfed agriculture and animal husbandry. They cultivated mainly grain. In 1944/45 a total of 5,247 dunums was allocated to cereals; 49 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The antiquities authorities of the Mandate noted that the foundations of earlier structures were present in the village.