Qarn Sartaba reserve

It is located kilometres from Aqraba town southeast of Nablus in the northern West Bank, it is elevated 337m from sea level and 650 from Jordan valley.This nature reserve is acknowledged also as herod summit or alexanders castle.

It is known as one of the highest summits in northern Jordan valley near the Jordanian borders where the magic landscape. It also includes the fortress ruins in the mountain summit, water tanks dug into rocks, caves and stunning views., it is known that it is similar to arima castle, the latter is said to be the place of Canaanite town known as Sartan. Historically,ٍSordoba castle backs to the Hellenistic age (2^nd century BC) and early roman era. It is hard to reach the nature reserve individual, it requires group availability as several fears face the visitors as the Israeli occupation use it sometimes as closed military zone. The nature reserve has only one trail and it has bus stop in the mountain summit.

The east part of the nature reserve is climatically affected by Jordan valley , this make diversity of vegetations  differ from the protected area start, that means visitors are being in zone known as Eastern Foothills (Shafa al-Ghor region) , three different climates (Central mountain ,Eastern foothills, Jordan valley).The protected area has enriched natural and aquatic diversity , where spring of sarhan in the east ,Areed el khoeld North-east  and the spring in the mountain foothills , it is known as the mountain spring .Several floras can be watched in the foothills  and several birds can be observed where they reflect the beauty of the nature reserve. The kestrel is one of the birds found in the protected area, they use the rocky slopes as suitable habitats.

Several caves and historical sites are found overlooking the valleys. Visitors can spend a day to see the last sunlight on the west sides and if they slept in the place, they could realize the first dawn sunlight from east, known as astronomical twilight.

The surrounded towns of the protected area have some natural and historical sites such as Karzlia spring in the north of the nature reserve, historically it backs to Canaanite and roman periods. Several sites also are found such as Roman pond, Roman ruins, Canaanite Expeller oil pressing, and catacombs in which they were used in water storage.