Battir is the quiet village at the heart of this cultural landscape, in the hills southwest of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, where terraces of dry stone climb the slopes in layer after layer. They are planted with olives, vines, and the vegetables that Battir is famous for, especially a small, sweet kind of aubergine. UNESCO inscribed the area in 2014 as the Land of Olives and Vines, a cultural landscape of southern Jerusalem, because the terraces, the irrigation channels and the old watch-towers show an agricultural system that has worked for many centuries.
The remarkable thing is the water. A spring called Ain al-Jama'in feeds a system of channels and pools, and for generations the water has been divided among the village families on a rota, each getting a set period at a set hour. Every pool and every channel has a place in the schedule, and elders can still say whose turn it is. It is a form of common management that has outlasted empires. A railway line built by the Ottomans in the 1890s, linking Jaffa and Jerusalem, also runs through the valley, adding a rusting counterpoint to the terraces.
The surrounding hills are a mix of limestone ridges, scrub and cultivated slopes, with fig, almond and pomegranate trees, and in spring the land is covered in wild flowers. The light in early morning and late afternoon turns the stone a pale gold. These roads are narrow, winding and often steep, passing small villages and with the occasional checkpoint, and conditions in the area can change quickly. Anyone planning to ride here should check the current situation, local advice and what is allowed on a foreign-plated vehicle, and keep documents close at hand.
Battir has just over four thousand people, and Husan nearby has more than five thousand, so you will find some small shops, cafes and fuel in the area, and Bethlehem, a few kilometres east, has more choices. Walking in the terraces is the best way to understand the place, and the old paths between the fields and the spring are open to the careful visitor. Spring, with green slopes, and autumn, when the olive harvest is on, are the best seasons. Summer is hot and dry, and winter can be wet and cold.