aaGalleries                             Palestinian Towns - RamallahaaaaaSeries 1-5

Proceed to the galleries below by clicking on the appropriate image.  There are five galleries to choose from.  If you are finished viewing one gallery and would like to  explore another you have to make sure you follow guided links to bring you back to this page.  Enjoy!

This is the first of a five part series which will feature five major Palestinian cities or towns.  Look for a new town every month.

Related sites:

• Ramallah City
• The Ramallah Club of Cleveland
• Ramallah American Club of Jacksonville
• Birzeit University Ramallah,Palestine

In the hilly region of central Palestine, ten miles (16 kilometers) north of Jerusalem, lies the pleasant town of  Ramallah. Built on several hills at an altitude of 2,950 feet (900 meters) above seal level, Ramallah enjoys a temperate climate. For two or  three weeks during the summer it is customary for Ramallah to experience a heat wave when the temperature will rise at midday to 90 or 95 F. (32  to 35C.), and it is customary in winter to have a two  or three week cold spell when at night the temperature will drop to a low of 30 or 35 F. (-10 to 20C.), but for most part, the climate is unusually temperate. So pleasant is its climate that when the West Bank was under Jordanian rule from 1948-67, Ramallah continued to be known as “The Bride of Palestine,” and was a favorite summer resort for Arabs from as for away as Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudia Arabia.

It comes as a surprise to the children of Ramallah people living in the United States to learn that there is no rain in Ramallah during at least half of the year. As is the case throughout Palestine and many parts of the Middle East, it   rains in Ramallah only during the winter season, from about the first of November till the end of April. Snow is unusual; it generally snows once a year, but the snow does not last long. The average an-nual rainfall is about 25 inches or 63 centi-meters. During the long, dry summers, however, there is an abundance of dew which falls during the night and early morning, and which is absorbed by the vegetation. Ramallah also has five spring from which water can be drawn.

 Even at the present time, Ramallah time, Ramallah has no industry, and air pollution is virtually unknown in the Ramallah area. Earlier in this century, before the many buildings sprang up on Palestine's coastline, the atmosphere was so clear that it was possible from the heights of Ramallah to see the lights of the ships anchored in Jaffa harbor, 28 miles (45 Kilometers) away. And in the sixteenth century, when Rashed Haddad came to settle Ramallah and bought the land from the people of the adjoining town of El Bireh, the site of Ramallah was covered with thick woods, so thick, it is said, that if a piece of bread were dropped from above it would lodge in the branches of the trees and not fall to the ground.

During the  twelfth century, French Crusaders apparently had a settlement in the Ramallah area. Subterranean remains of a tower from Crusader times can still be seen   in the old section of the city. The Crusaders also built a small church in Ramallah, which was converted into a mosque when the Crusaders were driven out. The present-day mosque in Ramallah, built in 1960, is located on the site of the former church and mosque. the site of Ramallah was evidently known by that name as early  as the twelfth century. In his work, Les Colonies Franques de Syrie aux XII et XIII Siecles, a historical geography of greater Syria during the times of the Crusades published in 1883, Baron Emmanuel Rey refers to the site of  Ramallah as “ Ramelie”.