Suba | |
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Remains of the Suba village square and surrounding buildings, formerly the Belmont Castle courtyard
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Arabic | صوبا |
Name meaning | The heap |
Also spelled | Soba, Sobetha, Zova |
Subdistrict | Jerusalem |
Coordinates | 31°47′5″N 35°7′26″E / 31.78472°N 35.12389°ECoordinates: 31°47′5″N 35°7′26″E / 31.78472°N 35.12389°E |
Palestine grid | 162/132 |
Population | 620, (1945) |
Area | 4,102 dunams |
Date of depopulation | 13 July 1948 |
Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
Current localities | Tzova,Yedida school |
Suba (Arabic: صوبا) was a Palestinian Arab village west of Jerusalem that was depopulated and destroyed in 1948. The site of the village lies on the summit of a conical hill called Tel Tzova (Hebrew: תל צובה), or Jabal Suba, rising 769 metres above sea level, and it was built on the ruins of a Crusader castle.
Belmont castle was excavated by archaeologists in 1986-9. Middle Bronze Age cairn-tombs have been excavated in the neighborhood of the ruined Arab village, though the site itself has not yielded artifacts from before the late Iron Age. The place can perhaps be identified with Σωρης mentioned in the Greek version of Josh. 15:59. There has also been a tentative identification with the Tzova in 1 Samuel 14:47 and 2 Samuel 23:36. In the later Roman period, the site was mentioned in rabbinical sources as Seboim. Until the mid-19th century, Christian pilgrims mistakenly identified the site with Modi'in, the origin of the Maccabees.
Excavations on a plastered cave on the grounds of Kibbutz Tzova identified as the Cave of John the Baptist began in March 2000.
It has been suggested that Suba was Subahiet, one of 21 villages given by King Godfrey as a fief to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In 1114, the gift was re-confirmed by Baldwin I of Jerusalem.
A "Brother William of Belmont" was mentioned in Crusader sources in the years 1157 and 1162, he might have been castellan at Belmont.