Khirbet Shuweika
Khirbet Shweika is a few hundred meters west of Tel al-Nusbeh, south of Ramallah and al-Bireh, on the old Nablus to Jerusalem, and twelve kilometers north of Jerusalem.
Architectural evidence unearthed at the site points to the existence of a monastic complex, although the architectural remains excavated were mainly part of a monastery, a church, a house, a wine press, and tomb. The remains of the monastery are primarily visible on the eastern side of the site, where several walls have been discovered, indicating part of an original building. The walls of the building are built of stones and covered from the inside with a special kind of tiles, and paved with mosaics. Other rooms have also been found in different areas, which may have been part of the complex.
The church is on the south end of the building, facing east. The outline of the church is a three-aisled basilica measuring 27.7m long and 11.4m wide, with a chapel on its north side measuring 13.4 by 7.8m. It has a single entrance on the west wall, and leads to the forecourt, which is paved with large flagstones, and to the right in the south corner of the church, is a tank (a well). Between the tank and the entrance is a buttress that supports the church's rear (west) wall. In the center, and in line with the church door, is a sill measuring 1.5 x 0.4 x 0.25m, which marks the entrance to the church, and there is another one at the access to the south aisle of the basilica hall. The excavations revealed cylindrical columns, presumably indicating the possible presence of galleries running from east to west. The eastern columns are bent in a semi-circular apse with a diameter of 4-5 m, where the central part of the hall consists of a cobblestone slab.
The site also contains the remains of houses that include rectangular rooms, and most of the deposits that were discovered in these rooms consist of glazed pottery pieces dating back to the Abbasid era, and some of these pieces date back to the Byzantine period, which indicates that the Abbasids used the entire site to the bedrock. On the eastern slope of the site, the press is located within the fortification wall and next to the church. The area of the mill is about 160 square meters; it consists of three chambers interconnected by channels, with three pits for collecting juice on the western side.