Hotels in Hebron

Hebron  is the largest city in the West Bank, located in the south, 30 kilometers south of Jerusalem. It is home to some 163,000 Palestinians,and over 500 Israeli Jewish settlers living in and around the Old Quarter.Hebron lies 930 meters (3,050 ft) above sea level, located in the Palestinian territories and the Biblical region of Judea. Since it is the burial site of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob  and Leah, the fathers and mothers  of the Jewish people, it is the second holiest place in Judaism, after Jerusalem.It is also holy to Muslims.Hebron is a busy hub of West Bank trade, responsible for roughly one-third of the area's gross domestic product, in large part due to the sales of marble from quarries. It is locally well-known for its grapes, figs, limestone, pottery workshops and glassblowing factories. It is also the location of the major dairy product manufacturer, al-Junaidi. The old city of Hebron is characterized by narrow, winding streets, flat-roofed stone houses, and old bazaars. Hebron is home to Hebron University and the Palestine Polytechnic University.The most famous historic site in Hebron sits on the Cave of the Patriarchs. The site is holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. According to Genesis, Abraham purchased the cave and the field surrounding it from Ephron the Hittite to bury his wife Sarah; subsequently Abraham, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah were also buried in the cave. For this reason, Hebron is also referred to in Judaism as 'the City of the Patriarchs', and regarded as one of its Four Holy Cities. (The remaining Matriarch, Rachel, is buried outside Bethlehem). Over and around the cave itself churches, synagogues and mosques have been built throughout history (see "History" below). The Isaac Hall is now the Ibrahimi Mosque, while the Abraham Hall and Jacob Hall serve as a Jewish synagogue. In medieval Christian tradition, Hebron was one of the three cities, the other two being Juttah and Ain Karim, that boasted of being the home of Mary's cousin, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist and wife of Zacharias, and thus possibly the birthplace of the Baptist himself.