Geography
The city is situated on the western edge of northern West Bank, in the foothills of the Samarian mountains about 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) west of Nablus and Jenin and 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) east of the Israeli coastal town of Netanya. It is bordered by the 1948 cease-fire line, with the Centre and Haifa Districts in the west, and Qalqiliya and Ramallah Districts to the south. Its central location between a plain and a mountain has made it commercially and strategically significant and has had a great effect on its growth. In the past, Tulkarem was a caravan station and a trading center for products from the city's surrounding villages and farms, as well as a point from which armies crossed to Egypt and the Levant (al-Sham).
Tulkarem is at the crossroads of three historically important arteries: A road which runs north from the Latrun area along the edge of the plain to Mount Carmel, Mount Tabor, Mount Gilboa, Nazareth and the Galilee and the Golan Heights, a road which winds northward along the outer tier of hills from the Ajalon valley to the Jezreel Valley, and a road that rises from the Mediterranean Sea at modern-day Netanya east to Nablus. In the past it was a junction of the coastal railroad from north of Haifa to Cairo and a branch of the narrow gauge Hejaz railway to Damascus.
Tulkarem was built on the foothills of the Samarian mountain range over a higher area than that surrounding it. The land which was formed as a result of the new fourth epoch consists mostly of creeping sands from the west to the east. The mountainous valleys carry quantities of alluvium and gravel to Tulkarem's lands in seasons of heavy rain and floods, thus creating fertile soil. In addition, an aquifer feeds numerous wells and springs in the area.
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