The mountainous town is located at over 800 meters (2,600 ft),[3] with views on the Jordan Valley, West Bank with Jerusalem's walls visible on the horizon.

[5] The village was listed in the 1915 Ottoman census for the district of Salt as Mahis and the tribe of Jabara and had a population of 505.

[8] In Mahis there is a shrine of Khidr, a single room surrounded by a small garden with a green flag on top.

[11] Mahis is based on an agrarian economy, including wheat, barley, and tobacco as well as pomegranates, grapes and olives.

[12] The southern part of the Mahis territory called Almeda also attracts tourism due to its forested mountains and location near the Dead Sea/West Bank as well as Amman.