Tel el-Mazar Jiftlik (BibleWalks.com)

Tel el-Mazar is a multi-period archaeological site, situated on a ridge that extends into the Tirzah (Fara'a) river valley. The area of the ancient site is 5 dunams. On the summit, rising 20m above the valley, is a British mandate period structure, now operating as an inn.
From the summit are great views of the area. To the East is Khirbet Makhruk, where Canaanite and Iron Age fortresses once protected the route along the north bank of the Tirzah river from and to the Jordan river crossings near Adam bridge. Nearby, south of the site, is Tel es-Simadi, an Iron Age II fortress that once protected the route along the southern bank of Tirzah river. On the high mountain on the south is Sartaba - the Hasmonean and Roman period mountain fortress.
On the north east foothill of Tell Mazar is an abandoned structure of an Ottoman/British mandate police station – the JIftlik Police Station, as seen from the south west side.
The police station's design blends the original Ottoman structure with British Mandate additions. The two-story Ottoman building stands on the southwestern side, distinguished by its stone masonry and large, arched doors and windows. This contrasts sharply with the British model, which favored small ground-floor windows to protect those inside. The remaining sides of the complex were enclosed by a single-story structure made of plaster-coated concrete. Two watchtowers were built at the eastern and western corners, with the western tower housing a water storage tank. As with other police stations of the era, the first floors of these towers were equipped with firing slits protected by iron shutters
Its story begins in the 19th century. Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II bought vast swaths of land in this region. In Turkish, these royal estates were called Çiftlik—which the locals pronounced as JIFtlik. Around 1913, the Ottomans built a majestic administrative estate, or Sarayah, right at the mouth of the Tirzah stream. It was the perfect strategic bottleneck to control the roads connecting Jericho, Nablus, and the Jordan River crossings.
After World War I, the British Empire took control. Following the Arab Revolts of the late 1930s, British officer Sir Charles Tegart designed a network of reinforced concrete fortresses across the country to secure its borders. In 1941, the British heavily expanded the Jiftlik site, turning the old Sultan's estate into a formidable Tegart Fort. Their mission? Stop the smuggling of rebel fighters and weapons flowing across the Jordan River into the rocky mountains.
When the British left in 1948, the Jordanian military seized the fort. Two decades later, during the 1967 Six-Day War, control shifted once again. The Israel Defense Forces transformed the fortress into a vital military base, serving as the Jordan Valley Brigade Headquarters. It was later named Camp Arieh, honoring Colonel Arieh Regev, a commander who fell nearby in pursuit of militants. Eventually, the army relocated to a nearby area on the west side of Tell Mazar, and the desert took back over.
Today, the Jiftlik Fort is an official heritage site, but it stands in deep neglect. Its walls are scarred by gunfire, its iron stripped away, used occasionally only by local shepherds. Yet, standing proud at the crossroads of history, this architectural chimera—half-Ottoman palace, half-British bunker—remains a silent witness to the turbulent story of the Jordan Valley.
On the northern slopes below, you can see the ruins of Ottoman and British Mandate houses. Next to one of these crumbling homes is a sixty-meter aqueduct carved straight into the rock face. It brought water from higher up the Tirzah River, letting it drop into the chimney of a watermill. This rushing water spun a vertical shaft connected to a massive grinding stone. As wheat grains poured in, the spinning stone crushed them into flour. The flour was packed into sacks, with the mill owner keeping a ten-percent cut as a fee.
Even the overflow water didn't go to waste—it was channeled through a smaller aqueduct along the cliff to irrigate the trees below.
On the eastern foothills of Tell Mazar lie the faint traces of ancient buildings and burial caves. Inside one of these rock-cut tombs, a nineteenth-century PEF survey discovered an intriguing rock carving featuring Hebrew letters, suggesting it may date back to the Early Roman period.
Later archaeological surveys by Adam Zertal revealed a long history of occupation here. Based on the pottery fragments left behind, half of the site's activity dates to the Roman and Byzantine eras, with 30% from the Persian period, 15% from the Iron Age, and a final 5% from the Ottoman era.