Ancient Israel An ancient Jewish town called Tiv'on existed in the general area. It was mentioned in the
Talmud and
Mishnah. It is mentioned several times in Talmudic literature in connection with various sages, some of whom lived there.
Ottoman Empire In 1859, the village of
Tubaun was estimated to have a tillage of 22
feddans. In 1875,
Victor Guérin found that the village had 200 inhabitants. In 1881, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described
Tubaun as a small
adobe village, on high ground, at the edge of the wood.
British Mandate The
1922 census of Palestine showed that ''Tub'un'' had 151 inhabitants, all Muslim. The area was acquired by the Jewish community as part of the
Sursock Purchase. In 1925 a Zionist organisation purchased 30 feddans in Kiskis (present
Alonim) and Tabaun (present Kiryat Tiv'on) from the
Sursuk family of
Beirut. At the time, there were 36 families living there. In the
1931 census Tabun had a population of 239, still all Muslim, in a total of 48 houses. From 1931 to 1935, a significant land controversy arose from competing claims by the Jewish Agency and Arab
tenant farmers over the area, culminating in a violent clash between local Bedouins and Jewish watchmen in 1935. In the
1945 statistics,
al Tivon (Alonim) (previously
Qusqus Taboun) had 370 Muslim and 320 Jewish inhabitants, with a total land area of 5,823
dunams. Of this, 141 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 2,038 for
cereals, while 3,644 dunams were classified as non-cultivable land.
Modern Israel The symbol of Kiryat Tiv'on is the
cyclamen, a flower that grows between the rocks, reflecting the town's appreciation of nature and its efforts to preserve the landscape and safeguard the environment. == Population ==