SICHAR (Gr. Σύχαρ). - A town in central Palestine, mentioned only once, in Jn 4:5, as the home of the Samaritan woman converted by Jesus at the nearby well of Jacob. The site is generally identified with the present-day village of 'Askar, located on the southern slopes of Mount Hebal, about 1 km from Jacob’s well.
The Bordeaux Pilgrim (333), Eusebius, St. Jerome (Onom., 164.1), and the Madaba mosaic map appear to confirm this identification, distinguishing Sichar from the city of Shechem, which at that time was abandoned and deserted. However, archaeological excavations conducted at Tell el-Balāth, the site of ancient Shechem, have shown that this place was still inhabited in the Roman period, though no longer called Shechem but by the Aramaic name Syechora, corresponding in Greek to the evangelical Sichar. Later, when the inhabitants moved further east, they gave the name Syechora—transformed into Arabic ‘Askar—to their new village, built around a rich spring. In tradition, this place was regarded as the home of the Samaritan woman and as distinct from Shechem.