Battir is a village of terraces. On the slopes of the hills south-west of Jerusalem, a system of stone-walled terraces and irrigation channels has been watered for centuries by a spring that is shared out in turn among the village families, according to a rota that locals still keep. The terraces grow vegetables, olives, and aubergines for which Battir is known, and the system, with its Roman-era origins and later improvements, was listed by UNESCO in 2014 as a cultural landscape. The little railway line from Jaffa to Jerusalem, built by the Ottomans in the 1890s, runs along the valley floor below the village.
South of here lie the area around Husan and Beit Jala and further toward Hebron, a landscape of limestone hills, terraced slopes, olive groves and old stone villages. The soil is stony and the light, particularly in spring and in the afternoon, is clear and golden. The Caves of Maresha and Bet Guvrin, on the ride titles, are a short ride to the west, a labyrinth of bell-shaped caves cut in soft chalk by Hellenistic and Roman quarrymen, and a very different kind of underground.
Riding here requires care and local knowledge. The area lies within the West Bank, with military checkpoints, restricted roads, and a complicated map of zones, and what is open to a foreign visitor on a motorbike can change with little notice. Check the current situation with reliable sources and ask locally before going, and be ready to turn back. The roads are narrow and winding in the hills, with sharp bends and steep drops, and traffic can be heavy, with sudden stops at junctions.
Water, a map and a flexible plan are worth more than a tight schedule.
When it works, the reward is quiet: the sound of water in a channel, the smell of wild thyme on the terraces, and the old railway line curving below.