Beit Ur al-Fauqa
municipality in Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate
Beit Ur al-Fauqa (Arabic: بيت عور الفوقا) is a Palestinian village located in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the northern West Bank, 14 kilometers (8.7 mi) west of Ramallah and 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) southeast of Beit Ur al-Tahta.
Beit 'Ur al-Fauqa is identified with the ancient town of Upper Bethoron, with archaeological evidence dating its origins to the Iron Age. Positioned on two hilltops near Route 443, the historic "ascent of Bethoron" pass, the site witnessed significant battles in biblical times and later during the Maccabean Revolt and the First Jewish–Roman War due to its strategic importance.
During the later Roman and Byzantine periods, the town's significance waned, and by the early 5th century, it had become a small village, as noted by Jerome. Eventually, this settlement was abandoned, with no mention in Arabic sources, though remains from the Crusader and Ayyubid periods have been found here. The current village is a modern settlement that were once a small hamlet until the latter half of the 20th century.
Today, Beit 'Ur al-Fauqa is a small village, with most residents tracing their origins to Dura. Since 1967, it has been under Israeli occupation, with its territory split between Area B and Area C following the Oslo Accords. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of 1,049 in the 2017 census.
Location and geography
Beit Ur al-Fauqa is located 8.4 kilometers (5.2 mi) west of Ramallah.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Beit Ur al-Fauqa” as municipality in Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2905277. VIAF identifies the subject as 25146462598727770602. Authority coordinates are 31.886, 35.114. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1967 and 2017.
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This entry incorporates text from “Beit Ur al-Fauqa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.