Nablus is one of the most interesting cities in the northern West Bank, set in a valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal 63 kilometres north of Jerusalem. Founded in 72 AD by the Roman Emperor Titus as Flavia Neapolis, it remained under that name until the Arab conquest in 636 AD.
Today Nablus is the commercial and industrial heart of the northern West Bank. The old city centre is best explored on foot. The narrow, sometimes covered streets of the souq are atmospheric and lively. Among the main sights are the minaret of the An-Nasir Mosque and, a few doors up, the privately owned Touqan Palace, an old Turkish mansion — you may be allowed into the garden. East of the mosque is the Al-Shifa Hammam, a working Turkish bath dating to 1480, one of the oldest in the country.
Nablus is famous for two things: its olive oil soap, produced here for over 250 years from local olive oil and caustic soda, and its knafeh, a sweet pastry of cheese and shredded filo drenched in sugar syrup that is the city's signature dish. The soap factories in the old city can sometimes be visited. Mount Gerizim, rising steeply above the southern edge of the city, is the holy mountain of the ancient Samaritan community — one of the world's smallest religious minorities — who still live on its summit and perform their Passover sacrifice there each spring.