Khirbat al-Lawz

The village stood on the southern side of a mountain crest, overlooking a wide area to the south, east, and west. Wadi al-Sarar flowed past the southern fields of the village, going west on its descent to the Mediterranean. A secondary road linked Khirbat al-Lawz to the village of Ayn Karim (and hence, to Jerusalem) to the east. In the late nineteenth century, the village of Khirbat al-Lawz was located on the upper slope of a ridge, and stood 245 m above a valley to the south. The slope below the village was terraced for cultivation.

The village plan took the form of an arc extending in an east-west direction. Its houses were built mainly of limestone. In the 1940s new houses were constructed west of the village. The residents, who were Muslim, worshipped in a village mosque and maintained a shrine for a local religious figure, Shaykh Salama. Their lands were used for cultivating vineyards, olive and almond trees, vegetables, and grain. Some of these crops were rainfed and others were irrigated from the village springs. Wild vegetation grew on the slopes and was used for grazing. In 1944/45 a total of 693 dunums was allocated to cereals; 728 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, of which 186 dunums were planted with olive trees. The village was an archaeological site that contained tombs, the ruins of buildings, a millstone, and other material evidence of earlier occupation.