Talluza

Talluza (Arabic: طلوزه‎) is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank, located 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) northeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) census, it had a population of 2,375 in 2007.

History

Talluza has been identified as the Samaritan town of Tira Luzeh where the high priest Baba Rabba erected a synagogue in the 4th century CE. The Talmud mentions the village as "Turluzeh" where the Romans burnt the sacred Hebrew scrolls. According to Albright, the name "Tur-Luzeh" (Tûr Lôzah) was Aramaic for "almond mountain." In 1941 a Greek inscription was found bearing the name of "Yosef Ben Ya'akov Zechariah," a Samaritan from the 4th–5th centuries. Later, in 1985 a rock-hewn Samaritan burial cave containing three coffins for members of the Samaritan Ptolemayos family was excavated. A handful of glass beads and an oil lamp were also found in the excavation. Inside the village is the maqam ("holy tomb") of Nabi Harun ("the Prophet Aaron") according to local tradition. A columbarium and Byzantine ceramics have been found in the village.