Naarah (Place)

City on the eastern border of Ephraim’s tribe, just north of Jericho (Jos 16:7); alternately called Naaran in 1 Chronicles 7:28. Josephus locates it near Jericho and associates it with abundant water supply in Archelaus’s day (Antiquities 17.13.1). Some locate Naarah at modern Tell el-Gisr near ‘Ain Duq at the foot of the mountains northwest of Jericho. A synagogue dating to the fourth or fifth century AD has been excavated here; it contains a mosaic floor with a zodiac, an ark of the law, and other figures.