Khan Al-Wakalah
The khan is a term used to refer to hotels, stations, and rest houses established along trade routes to accommodate traders and travelers. These facilities provided arrival, food, and security services for the traders and their goods.
The Khan in Nablus was built on the northwestern edge of the Old City, bordered by Haddadin Street and Market to the north, and traditional soap factories and residential buildings to the south. It was a designated site for commercial exchange and accommodation, and currently functions as a hotel and restaurant.
The layout of the Khan is centered around an open central yard, surrounded by halls with a fountain in the middle. The yard served as a space for selling goods and loading/unloading of goods onto animals. The Khan consisted of two floors - the ground floor had 15 small rooms (shops) for traders and animal barns on the western side, while the upper floor was designated for accommodation, with several rooms along the four facades and an intersecting arched hallway.
The only gate of the Khan is located in the middle of the northern facade, a beautiful, high, and wide entrance that allowed the passage of camels laden with goods. An inscription above the gate dated the construction to 1868 AD, and the Khan was attributed to various Turkish princes, including Farrukh Pasha. However, the gate collapsed in the early 1990s, and the inscription disappeared.
The external facade of the Khan included several shops not connected to the interior, but with doors opening onto Al-Haddadin Street. The Khan's primary function was to provide shelter for traders, visitors, their goods, and animals.
The Khan has undergone restoration, development, and rehabilitation into a tourist facility with a restaurant and hotel. Archaeological excavations at the site revealed that the Khan was built on the remains of previous buildings, including a mosaic floor from the Roman period and the foundations of Mamluk-era structures.