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Kings of Judah Trail – archaeological trail for tourists in Jerusalem and nearby places; unofficial name
A fact from Old City of Haifa appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 10 January2026(check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Latest comment: 7 months ago14 comments4 people in discussion
The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. You can locate your hook here. No further edits should be made to this page.
Surprised to see this article in its current state: it's a highly sensitive topic, yet major claims lack sourcing; some parts rely entirely on Ilan Pappé, whose works are considered highly controversial by many historians, and whose own public remarks also raise POV concerns (including describing himself as a "good friend" of Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and his recent report of being detained and questioned by US authorities over alleged Hamas support). Key context is missing as well, including the Battle of Haifa, actions by both sides, and calls by the city's Jewish leadership for Arab residents to remain. Tagging for NPOV and sourcing issues. Rafi Chazon (talk) 08:15, 2 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
The majority of this comment is built on the claim that: some parts rely entirely on Ilan Pappé. Pappé is used once, for half of a minor bullet. So no problem to delete the Pappé source entirely, but I believe it has been established elsewhere that he is a reliable source, so your claims about him may conflict with community consensus. Suggest we let others comment.
On the Battle of Haifa (1948), we can add more context from that article, but it won’t change the explanation of the reason for the demolition, which took place afterwards. We could also add more context from Nakba. The Old Jaffa or Old City of Acre articles do not go into that detail - they are more focused on heritage and architecture, which in my view is also most appropriate for this article. Onceinawhile (talk) 14:28, 2 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
The article is new and sufficiently long, but several paragraphs lack sources and the other two Old Haifas are not mentioned in the article. Perhaps a hook about its destruction and the reasons for the destruction would be more interesting. Surtsicna (talk) 08:16, 2 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Onceinawhile, the article still does not say that these three all different places. Have we got a source that says that? If not, I would still suggest that you propose a hook about its destruction. Surtsicna (talk) 09:39, 9 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Hi Surtsicna, the article says The Old City of Haifa had at least two predecessors: the Roman and Byzantine city 2.5km to the southeast, and the medieval city 2.5km to the northwest.[5][6]
Hi @Surtsicna: the clearest source that says this is Pringle 1993 (bolding added):
Pringle & 1993LZ, p. 150: "Two Haifas, an old and a new town, are referred to in twelfth-century sources. New Haifa, or simply Haifa, was a fortified settlement (qasr or castrum/castellum) situated in what is today the south-eastern part of lower modern Haifa. it seems to have been established under the Fatimids towards the end of the eleventh century, and in 1100 it fell to Baldwin I after a month-long siege."
Pringle & 1993LZ, p. 150-152: "Old Haifa, which in 1046 had been no more than a village, was by then deserted. Its ruins lay at the Nahr al-Matna (or Wadi Rushmiya), between New Haifa and the Palm Grove (Palmarea) around the Kishon estuary... The very precise details given in this charter allow the "old town" to be located at or near Tall Abu Hawam, as G. Beyer formerly proposed. This is identified as mutilac Calamon, a road station between Acre (Ptolemaida) and Shiqmona (Sicanminus) that is mentioned in AD 333 by the Bordeaux Pilgrim. Since the tell itself is shown virtually surrounded by water on the Survey of Western Palestine map c. 1877, it seems likelier that the main Roman settlement would have been on the road itself, a small distance to the south-west, than on the tell itself; its remains may even be represented by the subrectangular enclosure astride the road that is shown on the same map. Finds from the tell itself, however, include objects and pottery of the Roman, Byzantine and medieval periods, including the twelfth and thirteenth centuries... and Iron Age tombs extend along the foot of the mountain to the south-west."
Pringle & 1993AK, p. 223: "After the Mamluk occupation, Haifa seems to have been virtually abandoned until the early seventeenth century. In the later eighteenth century, the town moved once more to a new site, this time some 2 km south-west of the twelfth-century centre. No trace of medieval Haifa has survived the neglect of the centuries, and since 1918, the rapid expansion of the port and city."
Thanks, Onceinawhile. I am afraid that the proposed hook will do a poor job at showcasing the nominated article because readers's attention will be dispersed between the three linked Haifas, but if you like it, I can approve it. Surtsicna (talk) 21:09, 22 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Thank you Surtsicna. I am happy if readers' attention disperses across the three articles, because this relationship between these three places was the reason I created the article in the first place – it stemmed from a discussion at Talk:Haifa#Moving the city in the 1700s? which showed that our Haifa article had set this out incorrectly since 2011. Onceinawhile (talk) 22:28, 22 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
