Kharbatha al-Misbah
Kharbatha al-Misbah (Arabic: خربثا المصباح, translit: "ruins of the lamp") is a Palestinian town in the central West Bank, located 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) west of Ramallah in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 5,211 in 2007. Nearby towns and villages include Beit Liqya to the south and Beit Ur at-Tahta to east. It has a total land area of 4,431 dunams, of which 644 are built-up areas and the remainder agricultural lands and forests.
History
In 1863 Victor Guérin found the village to have 400 inhabitants.
In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described the village, then called Khurbetha ibn es Seba, as "a small village on a ridge, with a well to the east."
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kherbet al-Mesbah had a population of 369, all Muslim. In the 1931 census it had increased to a population of 488, still all Muslim, in 121 inhabited houses.
