Jenin is a city in the northern West Bank, set in one of the most fertile parts of Palestine. The surrounding countryside — known as the "breadbasket of Palestine" — is green with olive groves, orchards, and vegetable fields. The city has a busy central market that draws shoppers from across the region, and on the western edge of town the Jenin refugee camp, home to the well-known Freedom Theatre and the scrap-metal sculpture known as the Jenin Horse.
Three kilometres west of Jenin lies the village of Burqin, home to one of the oldest churches in the world still in use. The Church of St George, used by the village's Greek Orthodox community, is traditionally associated with the miracle of Jesus healing ten lepers on his way to Jerusalem. The original church was built in the cave where the healing is said to have taken place, then expanded during the 6th–9th centuries and rebuilt in the 12th century by the Crusaders. The present structure dates largely to the 18th century but incorporates the ancient cave and earlier walls. It is a moving and historically layered site.
In the centre of town the Ottoman-era Fatima Khatun Mosque anchors the souk, and just north of the city Canaan Fair Trade presses much of the olive oil that leaves Palestine for shops abroad — visit during the autumn harvest if you can.