It is surrounded by the villages of Silwad, Taybeh, Kafr Malik and Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya and the Israeli settlement of Ofra.

It is identified with the biblical site of Ba'al-hazor, a place in Samaria on the border of Ephraim and Benjamin where Absalom held the feast of sheep-shearing when Amnon was assassinated.

[1] Its name is derived from the word for "courtyard", referring to the walled enclosures that this large land mass enabled ancients to construct.

The peak housed a pagan shrine for worship of a Baal (deity) who was considered "lord of the mountain", hence its name: "Baal-hazor".

The Genesis Apocryphon of the Dead Sea scrolls identifies Ramat Hazor as the site between Bethel and Ai where Abraham built an altar and invoked the name of God (Gen. 12:1–9).