The village lay in a flat area in the al-Hula Plain, next to the intersection of the Jordan River with Wadi Tur'an, which descended into Lake al-Hula some 4 km due south. It was linked to neighboring villages via a network of secondary roads, around which the village houses were clustered. Travelers who visited al-Salihiyya in the late nineteenth century described it as a village built of adobe bricks, situated on arable land on a plain close to a marsh. The village population was about ninety. 
The center of the village was defined by a small marketplace. Its population was predominantly Muslim. Al-Salihiyya had a mosque and a boys' elementary school. Agriculture was the residents' economic mainstay; they grew vegetables and fruits in the eastern and northern segments of the village land. In 1944/45 a total of 4,230 dunums was allocated to cereals and 23 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.
