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In the valley of Shechem, near to a city called Sychar, was the well where the Lord rested, and conversed with the woman of Samaria. John 4: 5-12. It is identified with Bir Yakub, at the base of Gerizim, , and is one of the few spots in Palestine the identification of which has not been disputed.
The well is cut out of the solid limestone, 7ft. 6in. in diameter, and is 115 feet deep. The well's mouth is below the surface of the ground and is covered with a stone with a hole in the centre. A traveller, John of Wurzburg (A.D. 1160-1170), says that when he visited the well a church was then being erected over it; but that has long since been destroyed and a Russian Orthodox Church built over it, though unfinished due to the Communist Revolution of 1917. See SYCHAR.