Ras Abu 'Ammar

The village stood on an elongated hill that stretched from southeast to northwest, surrounded on three sides by the deep Wadi al-Sarar that wound its way westward. It was also dominated by mountains on all sides, and was less than 1 km south of the Jerusalem−Jaffa railway line. A secondary road linked Ras Abu 'Ammar to a highway that ran south of it and led to Bethlehem. In the late nineteenth century, Ras Abu 'Ammar was described as a village built of stone on a small ridge, situated above an 'open and rather flat' valley in which the villagers planted olive trees. The village had a rectangular plan and most of its houses were built of stone. A main street, running in a northwest−southeast direction, divided the site into two sections. During the British Mandate, new construction extended along roads connecting it to the villages of al-Qabu and 'Aqqur in the east and north, and along the highway in the south. The village had an elementary school and a few small shops in its center. The villagers, who were Muslim, maintained more than one shrine for local sages, including one for a Shaykh Abu 'Ammar. They relied on springs for their drinking water and irrigation.

The village lands were utilized both for agriculture and pasture. Agriculture was based on rainfed grain, vegetables, and fruit trees, including olive trees (which covered 100 dunums) and grape vines. Irrigation of the latter was made possible by spring water that flowed from the mountain top and accumulated in ponds. In 1944/45 a total of 2,791 dunums was allocated to cereals; 925 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The nearby Khirbat Kafr Sum (158126) was inhabited during the Crusader period and also during the sixteenth century.