Touqan Soap Factory West Bank

One of a number of soap factories open to visitors in Nablus, Touqan opened in 1872, and the techniques of soap making here have not changed much since. You can buy soap for 7NIS, and tours are free. On the ground floor, visitors can observe soap being mixed in huge, steaming stone vats before it is spread on the floor upstairs and cut into cubes by barefoot workers with extended metal sickles. In the next room, the soap is piled in head-height cairns before being wrapped by hand by workers who go through a staggering 1000 pieces an hour.