Qlaileh


Qlaileh, Leileh, is a village in the Tyre District in South Lebanon.

Name

According to E. H. Palmer in 1881, the name Leileh comes from a female proper name; it also means “night”.

History

In 1875 Victor Guérin describes a ruin here, which he calls Kh. Kleileh. The upright of oil-presses, a winepress cut in the rock, with two compartments, one round and one square, and three broken sarcophagi, are all that remain here. A short distance south of this place he found another ruined hamlet, having a cistern cut in the rock, and an enormous millstone lying on the ground, called Kh. Ratieh.
In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described it: "A small well-built stone village, containing about 50 Moslems, surrounded by olives and arable ground. The water supply is from 'Ain Zaheiriyeh."