Khirbat Umm Burj

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.

Lavnin (Hurvat Libnah / Tel Lavnin / Kh. Tell el-Beida)(Hebrew: חורבת לבנין)(Arabic: خربة تل البيضة), is a late Bronze Age archaeological site situated in Israel's Adullam region, rising some 389 metres (1,276 ft) above sea level. The site lies 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) northwest of Beit Gubrin, and about 1 kilometer west-north-west of Khirbat Umm Burj, directly south of Nehusha. In April 2019, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee announced that the site would be incorporated into a new national park in the Judean Shephelah, called the "Lavnin Ridge Nature Reserve and National Park," an area to span over 1,000 dunams (250 acres) within the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council.

Nehusha (Hebrew: נְחוּשָׁה, lit. 'Steadfast') is a moshav in central Israel. Located five kilometres north-east of Beit Guvrin, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 1,505.

Adullam Grove Nature Reserve (Hebrew: שמורת טבע חורש עדולם) is a nature reserve in central Israel, south of Beit Shemesh, managed by the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority. The park is full with archaeological sites, including a number of ruins of rural villages with findings from the late Second Temple period and the Jewish–Roman wars, Byzantine-period Christian churches, as well as remains from earlier and later times.

Adullam-France Park (Hebrew: פארק עדולם-צרפת), also known as Parc de France-Adoulam, is a sprawling park of 50,000 dunams (50 km2; 19 sq mi)(ca. 12,350 acres) in the Central District of Israel, located south of Beit Shemesh. The park, established in 2008 for public recreation, features two major hiking and biking trails, and four major archaeological sites from the Second Temple period. It stretches between Naḥal Ha-Elah (Highway 375), its northernmost boundary, to Naḥal Guvrin (Highway 35), its southernmost boundary. To its west lies the Beit Guvrin-Beit Shemesh highway, and to its east the "green line" – now territories under joint Israeli-Palestinian Arab control – which marks its limit.

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.

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.

Tzafririm (Hebrew: צַפְרִירִים, lit. 'Zephyrs') is a moshav in central Israel. Located near Beit Shemesh, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 417.

Horvat Midras (Hebrew: חורבת מדרס), or Khirbet Drūsye in Arabic, is an archaeological site located in the central Judaean Lowlands, in modern-day Israel. It contains the remains of an ancient settlement situated on the slopes of a spur near an ancient road that once connected Jerusalem with the southern coastal plain. Today, the site lies within the Adullam Nature Reserve. Continuous occupation at Horvat Midras is attested from the Hellenistic period. Following the Hasmonean conquest of Idumaea in the late 2nd century BCE, the site was briefly abandoned. It was re-established in the 1st century BCE and grew to become one of the largest and most affluent rural settlements in the Judaean Lowlands during the Second Temple period. The site, home to a Jewish population, remained inhabited through the First Jewish Revolt (66–70 CE) and up to the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–136 CE). Later in the same century, a cultic complex was established at the site. During the Byzantine period, Horvat Midras was home to a small Christian village, with an elaborate church. Following the Muslim conquest in the early 7th century, the church remained in use, but its crosses were intentionally plastered over, and access routes were altered to avoid the sanctuary. The church collapsed during the 749 earthquake, after which a rural settlement began to develop in the late 8th or 9th century. After several centuries of abandonment, the site was reoccupied in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods (13th to 16th centuries) and functioned as a small agricultural village. In the early Ottoman period, it declined, becoming a seasonal settlement, with the ancient remains reused for herding and small-scale farming. One of the most notable finds at Horvat Midras is a monumental family tomb from the late Second Temple period, consisting of a podium topped by a stepped pyramid. Unique in the rural landscape of ancient Judea, it represents a rare example of a rural "display tomb"—a status symbol likely commissioned by a wealthy family, possibly one whose influence rose through ties with the Herodian dynasty. Other major finds include hiding complexes, rock-cut tombs, columbaria (structures intended to house pigeons), mikvehs (Jewish ritual baths), and the elaborate Byzantine church with well-preserved mosaics.

Givat Yeshayahu (Hebrew: גִּבְעַת יְשַׁעְיָהוּ, lit. 'Yeshayahu Hill') is a moshav in central Israel. Located in the Valley of Elah around ten kilometres south of Beit Shemesh, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 807.

Qila (Arabic: قيلة) is a Palestinian village located 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) north-west of Hebron. The village is in the Hebron Governorate Southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 918 in mid-year 2006. The primary health care facilities for the village are at Qila designated by the Ministry of Health as level 1 and at Beit Ula, Kharas or Nuba where the healthcare is at level 2.

Judea or Judaea (; Hebrew: יהודה, Modern: Yəhūda, Tiberian: Yehūḏā; Greek: Ἰουδαία, Ioudaía; Latin: Iudaea) is a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Palestine and Israel. The name's usage is historic, having been used in antiquity and still into the present day; it originates from Yehudah, a Hebrew name. Yehudah was a son of Jacob, who was later given the name "Israel" and whose sons collectively headed the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Yehudah's progeny among the Israelites formed the Tribe of Judah, with whom the Kingdom of Judah is associated. Related nomenclature continued to be used under the rule of the Babylonians (the Yehud province), the Persians (the Yehud province), the Greeks (the Hasmonean Kingdom), and the Romans (the Herodian Kingdom and the Judaea province). Under the Hasmoneans, the Herodians, and the Romans, the term was applied to an area larger than the historical region of Judea. In 132 CE, the Roman province of Judaea was merged with Galilee to form the enlarged province of Syria Palaestina.The term Judea was revived by the Israeli government in the 20th century, as part of the Israeli administrative district name "Judea and Samaria Area" for the territory that is generally referred to as the West Bank.