Judea

Aderet (Hebrew: אַדֶּרֶת) is a moshav in central Israel. Located in the Judean foothills in the Adullam region, south of Beit Shemesh, west of Gush Etzion and overlooking the Valley of Elah, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 922.

Neve Michael (Hebrew: נְוֵה מִיכָאֵל, lit. 'Michael's Haven') also known as Roglit, is a moshav in central Israel. Located in the Adullam region and built upon an eminence in the far south-east end of the Elah Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 871.

The Mémorial de la Déportation des Juifs de France (Hebrew יָד לִגֵּירוּשׁ יְהוּדֵי צָרְפַת, translit.: Yad li-Geyrūš Yəhūdey Tsarfat) is a memorial in Israel to the deportation of Jews from France during the National Socialist era. Located in a pine forest near Beit Shemesh, near Moschaw Neve Michael in the Elah Valley, the site was built through the initiative of the Association des Fils et Filles des Déportés Juifs de France (Association of the sons and daughters of Jews deported from France), chaired by Beate Klarsfeld and Serge Klarsfeld, and opened on 18 June 1981. The concept was developed by Simon Guerchon. The memorial measures 100 metres in length and 13 metres in height. On the memorial are all of the pages from the book of the same name, Mémorial de la Déportation des Juifs de France, published by Serge and Beate Klarsfeld in 1978, reproduced on fibreglass panels, and which contains the convoys of deportations first and last names and date and place of birth of the deportees. The pine forest around the memorial with 80,000 trees in memory of the 80,000 deported Jews from France was planted by the Jewish National Fund. Two celebrations take place annually at the monument: On Yom HaShoah, the Day of Remembrance of the Shoah (27 Nisan, April/May), when the members of UNIFAN (Union of Immigrants from France, North Africa and Francophonie, הִתְאַחֲדוּת עוֹלֵי צָרְפַת, צְפוֹן אַפְרִיקָה וְדוֹבְרֵי צָרְפִיתִית, translit.: Hit'aẖdūt 'Ōley Tsarfat, Tsfōn Afrīqah, və-Dōvrey Tsarfatīt) to hold a commemoration ceremony (in the presence of a delegation from the French Embassy) following a workshop in Yad Vashem. On 16 July (the anniversary of the raid on the Velodrom-Vélodrome d'Hiver in Paris), the members of the Aloumim Association (עֲלוּמִים, Association of Israeli Children Hiding in France during the Shoa) pay tribute to their relatives at the Memorial.

Adullam (Hebrew: עֲדֻלָּם)(Greek: Οδολλάμ) is an ancient ruin, once numbered among the thirty-six cities of Canaan whose kings "Joshua and the children of Israel smote" (Joshua 12:7–24). After that, it fell as an inheritance to the tribe of Judah and was included in the northern division of the lowland (Shephelah) cities of the land of Judah (Joshua 15:35).The connection between Judah and Adullam and its surroundings was actually already established in the patriarchal period, when Judah "went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah" (Genesis 38:1). At the beginning of the royal period, in the days of King Saul, the area was close to the land of the Philistines, and thus David, fleeing from Saul, sought refuge in the cave of Adullam and made it a place of reconnoitering and organization, both, for him and his men (1 Samuel 22:1–2). Here, too, the episode took place when three of David's heroes brought him water from the well of Bethlehem and he did not dare to drink it, but "poured it out unto the Lord" (2 Samuel 23:13–17). It is also learnt from the battle of David and Goliath which took place in the Elah valley, directly adjoining the north-side of the ruin, as well as from the raid of the Philistines into Keilah to the immediate south of Adullam, that Adullam was a frontier city during that period.The current site was formerly known by the Arabic appellation Khurbet esh-Sheikh Madhkur, 9 mi. (15 km.) northeast of Beit Gubrin, and was built upon a hilltop overlooking the Elah valley, straddling the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank, and with its suburban ruin, ʿAīd el Mâ (or ʿEîd el Mieh), lying directly below it. By the late 19th century, the settlement, which had been a town, was in ruins. The hilltop ruin is named after Madkour, one of the sons of the Sultan Beder, for whom is built a shrine (wely) and formerly called by its inhabitants Wely Madkour. The hilltop is mostly flat, with cisterns carved into the rock. The remains of stone structures which once stood there can still be seen. Sedimentary layers of ruins from the old Canaanite and Israelite eras, mostly potsherds, are noticeable everywhere, although olive groves now grow atop of this hill, enclosed within stonewall enclosures. The villages of Aderet, Aviezer and Khirbet al-Deir are located nearby. The ruin lies about 3 km (1.9 mi) south of Moshav Neve Michael.

Aviezer (Hebrew: אֲבִיעֶזֶר) is a small religious moshav in central Israel. Located seven kilometres south of Beit Shemesh, at the east end of the Elah valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 890.

Chezib, also known as Achzib of Judah (Hebrew: אכזיב; כזיב), is a biblical place-name associated with the birth of Judah's son, Shelah (Genesis 38:5), corresponding to the Achzib of the Book of Joshua (15:44), a town located in the low-lying hills of the plain of Judah, known as the Shefela. In I Chronicles 4:22, the town is rendered as Chozeba. The place is now a ruin.

Bayt Nattif or Beit Nattif (Arabic: بيت نتّيف, Hebrew: בית נטיף and בית נתיף‎ alternatively) was a Palestinian Arab village, located some 20 kilometers (straight line distance) southwest of Jerusalem, midway on the ancient Roman road between Beit Guvrin and Jerusalem, and 21 km northwest of Hebron. The village lay nestled on a hilltop, surrounded by olive groves and almonds, with woodlands of oak and carobs overlooking Wadi es-Sunt (the Elah Valley) to its south. It contained several shrines, including a notable one dedicated to al-Shaykh Ibrahim. Roughly a dozen khirbas (deserted, ruined settlements) lay in the vicinity.During the British Mandate it was part of the Hebron Subdistrict. Bayt Nattif was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on October 21, 1948 under Operation Ha-Har.

Netiv HaLamed-Heh (Hebrew: נְתִיב הַל"ה, lit. 'Path of the 35') is a kibbutz in central Israel. Located in the Valley of Elah, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 670.

Khirbet al-Deir (Arabic: خربة الدير), or Khirbet ed-Deir, is a Palestinian village located 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southwest of Bethlehem, and 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) northwest of Hebron. The town is in the Hebron Governorate of central West Bank. According to the 2007 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) Census, the village had a population of 264 people.

Sokho (alternate spellings: Sokhoh, Sochoh, Soco, Sokoh; Hebrew: שׂוֹכֹה ,שׂוֹכוֹ ,שֹׂכֹה) is the name given to two ancient towns in the territorial domain of Judah as mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, west of the Judean hills. Both towns were given the name Shuweikah in Arabic, a diminutive of the Arabic shawk, meaning "thorn". The remains of both have since been identified. One is located about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Hebron and has been identified with the twin ruins known as Khirbet Shuwaikah Fauka and Tahta (Upper and Lower Shuwaikah), 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) southwest of Eshtamoa in the Hebron Hills district (grid position 150/091 PAL)(Joshua 15:48).The other ruin is situated on a hilltop overlooking the Elah Valley between Adullam and Azekah (Joshua 15:35), in the lower stratum of the Judaean foothills (grid position 147/121 PAL). Today it is a popular tourist attraction better known as Givat HaTurmusim. The site, occupied as early as the Iron Age, was visited by Claude Conder in 1881, who writes that it was already a ruin in his days, with two wells in the valley towards the west.A third town by this name, Shuwaykah, was located in the Hefer region (1 Kings 4:10), north of Tulkarm (grid position 153/194 PAL).

Umm er Rus (Arabic: امّ الرؤوس), alternate spelling Um Ra'us (literal meaning: "mother of the summits"), is a Roman-Byzantine era ruin that sits high on a spur in the Judean mountains, overlooking the Elah valley. The site was formerly known in Arabic as Umm er Rûs esh-Shamālīya ("the northern Umm er Rus"), to distinguish it from another site by the same name, lying on an adjacent hill to its south. The site takes its Arabic name from the prospect that it affords, having the broad connotation of "the place with the hill-top." Its older Hebrew appellation is no longer known. The ruin is located a little less than 1 mile northeast of Aviezer.

Horvat 'Ethri (Hebrew: חורבת עתרי; alt. spellings: Hurvat Itri, Ethri, Atari), Hebrew for "Ethri ruin", Arabic name: Umm Suweid ("mother of the buckthorns"), is an archaeological site situated in the Judean Lowlands in modern-day Israel. Excavations at the site uncovered the remains of a now partially restored Jewish village of the Second Temple period, wherein are preserved an ancient synagogue, wine presses, cisterns, ritual baths and stone ossuaries, as well as an underground hideout system. The village was violently destroyed during the Bar Kokhba revolt.