SAMARIA (ή Σαμαρείτις). - One of the three historical regions of Palestine, situated in the central highlands, with the Jordan River as its eastern boundary, the coastal plain of Sharon to the west, and the plain of Esdraelon to the north. The southern boundary with Judea has often shifted according to political vicissitudes.
The name, which before the exile referred to the territory of the northern kingdom (2 Kings 10:32; 15:29; 17:28; 2 Chron. 25:13), after the destruction of the capital and the kingdom, designated the inhabitants of the province of Samaria, and later the district of Semarajn. Initially, it included within its territory the villages of Bethel, Bethoron, and Jericho, but after the return of the Jews from exile, it lost the toparchies of Aphairema (= eΓ-Ταβιθει), Lydda, Ramathaim (Rentis), and Acrabatene at its southern boundary.
According to Flavius Josephus (Bell. Jud., III, 34), Samaria began north of the village of Ginea (= Genin) on the southern edge of the plain of Esdraelon, belonged to Galilee, and extended southward to the toparchy of Acrabatene (= e-Γ-Αραβαι). Elsewhere, however, the same writer (Vita, 14) places Casaloth (= Iksal) as the southernmost point of Galilee, thus excluding the plain of Esdraelon, which was under the dominion of Berenice, who possessed granaries there (Vita, 24). Probably the plain was divided between Galilee and Samaria by the historic river Kishon (Nahr el-Muqattá'), touching the territory of Scythopolis (= Beisan) to the northeast and Phoenicia to the northwest at the point of Anaut-Borceus (Bell. Jud., III, 3,3), corresponding to 'Ajn Berqit between Caesarea and Dora. The boundary with Judea to the south, according to the same author (Bell. Jud., I, 6, 5), was formed by a line running from Antipatris (Qal'at Rās el-'Ajn) up the Wadi Deir Ballut to Hirtbet Berqit, and from there, turning toward el-Ormeh, descending to Corea (= Qarāwah), then along the Wadi Far'ah to the Jordan, which from the Wadi Malih to the Wadi Kefrinq formed the eastern side, while the western side ran from the Nahr el-'Awgā to the Nahr ez-Zergā. These boundaries remained almost unchanged until the time of the Arab conquest, which pushed the southern boundaries of the Nablus district south of Lubban and Seilun.
The region is a massif that continues with the mountains of Judea. The highest elevations are between 700 and 800 meters, exceeding 1,000 meters only at Tell 'Asur (1,011 m) near the eastern edge; to the west, however, the range, once known as the "mountains of Ephraim," is less elevated. In the center of the region, Ebal (v.)—today Jebel es-Slemijieh (1,938 m)—and Gerizim, today Jebel et-Tor (868 m), face each other, with the valley and plain of el-Mahnah between them, where Shechem (v.) was located, near the present-day Nablus with 20,000 inhabitants. Nearby was Jacob’s Well, on the edge of which the Savior converted the Samaritan woman (John 4). Numerous wadis converge in the valleys to form the most important river of Samaria, the Nahr el-'Awgā, and to the east is the Wadi Far'ah.
The region has extensive grain fields. It is traversed from north to south by the road running from Jerusalem through Genin, another important center of Samaria. With the new political division of Palestine, Genin forms the northern limit of the Kingdom of Jordan; the other east-west communication route, leading from Nablus to the coast, is interrupted at Tulkarm, the border between Israel and Jordan.