Located in the Judean foothills near Beit Shemesh and eight kilometres west of Jerusalem,[2] it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council.

The moshav was established in 1950 by immigrants and refugees from northern Iran (South Kurdistan) and Morocco,[4] on the lands of the Palestinian Arab village of Bayt 'Itab, close to Dayr al-Hawa, which had been depopulated in the 1948 War[5][6] in Operation Ha-Har.

Nes Harim is home to two tzimers (similar to bed and breakfasts), three restaurants, one of them kosher, a swimming pool and a riding ranch.

"[8] Horbat 'Itab, a 130-dunam national park on the outskirts of Nes Harim, contains the ruins of a Crusader fortress that overlooked the road from Elah Velley to Jerusalem and the village of Bayt 'Itab.

The site was surveyed in 1989 by Denys Pringle, a researcher of the Crusader period, who documented the remains of the fortified building, vaults, a wall and towers, tunnels, a columbarium and an olive press.