Shechem
Shechem or Shchem (שכם "Shoulder", Standard Hebrew Šəḫem / Šəḫam, Tiberian Hebrew Šəḵem / Šəḵām) the location of Jacob's Well lay in a narrow shoulder of land in the narrow valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal approximately 65 km north of Jerusalem. The Ancient Roman and Arab city of Nablus lies 2 km to the west. Josephus Jewish Antiquities book 4, 8.44), writing in about AD 90, placed the city between Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal and other ancient writers knew it was on the outskirts of "Neapolis"/Nablus, but its archaeological site was only stumbled upon in 1903 by a German party of archaeologists led by Dr Hermann Thiersh, at a site known as Tell Balatah beside the traditional site associated with the tomb of Joseph (Joshua 24:32) and near Jacob?s Well, where Jesus met the woman of Samaria (Gospel of John 4:5-6).
Shechem had been a Canaanite settlement, mentioned on an Egyptian stele of a noble at the court of Abraham reached the "great tree of Moreh" at Shechem and offered sacrifice nearby. Later Joseph's bones were brought out of Egypt and reburied at Shechem.
In Acts vii. 16 the place is called "Sychem", and in the Gospel of John v. 5 it is called "Sychar".
