فلسطين

This narrow land between the Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean has been a corridor for armies, traders and pilgrims for as long as there are records. Jericho is among the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the world, with walls and a tower raised more than nine thousand years ago.

Canaanite, Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman periods each left their layer on the same hills. Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and Nablus grew as centres of faith, learning and trade.

Palestinian identity today is carried as much by its diaspora as by the towns and villages themselves, and preserving heritage has become a central part of that.

The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built over the traditional birthplace of Jesus, is one of the oldest churches still in daily use. The Old Town of Hebron, or Al-Khalil, grew around the Ibrahimi Mosque and the tombs of the patriarchs, and keeps a Mamluk-era layout of markets and courtyards.

At Battir, terraced hillsides watered by a Roman-era irrigation system are still farmed by the families who inherited them, and Tell es-Sultan at ancient Jericho records the earliest steps from hunting to settled farming.

Tatreez, the cross-stitch embroidery of Palestinian dresses, encodes village and family identity in colour and pattern, and is recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. Each region has its own motifs.

The olive harvest in October gathers whole families into the groves, and the kitchen — musakhan, maqluba, knafeh Nabulsiyeh — remains one of the strongest carriers of memory, at home and abroad.

The central highlands are cut into stone terraces that have held soil and rainwater for thousands of years, planted with olive, fig, almond and vine.

Eastward the land falls sharply into the Jordan Valley and the shore of the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the surface of the earth, while the coastal plain at Gaza meets the Mediterranean.