Khirbet Kuwayzibah (Arabic: كوزيبا, Hebrew: ח'רבת כויזבה), also Kuzibah, Kueiziba, is an ancient ruin, partly inhabited, in the Hebron Governorate in the West Bank, presently part of Sa'ir. The modern Palestinian village had a population of 1,383 in 2017.[1]
Etymology
Edward Henry Palmer noted in 1881 that Khurbet Kueiziba could possibly be a modern derivation of the Hebrew placename Chozeba.[2]
History
The site is dated to classic antiquity, and usually identified with Chozeba, also Kuseva (Hebrew: כוסבה) - the place of origin of Simon Bar Kokhba.[3][4]
At the foot of the ruin are several springs, known as 'Ain Kueiziba, along which are the remains of ancient pools. These springs are the source of water for the Arrub aqueduct, which together with other aqueduct supplied the water to the Roman aqueduct to Jerusalem.[5]
^Masterman, E. W. G. (1902). "The Water Supply of Jerusalem, Ancient and Modern". The Biblical World. 19 (2): 87–112. doi:10.1086/472951. ISSN0190-3578. One of these sources takes its rise in a small pool, the Birket Ktfin; the other starts from the 'Ain Kueiziba. The channels from these two sources converge and join their waters in the Birket 'Arrzib; at present this is quite a ruin, but it is evident that originally it was similar to the highest of the three Pools of Solomon. From this Birket the water passed to the long and extremely tortuous aqueduct which runs twenty-eight miles 32 to the Pools. Originally this aqueduct entered the second pool, but now the water descends by a rough, steep channel to the lowest pool
