Ma’alot-Tarshihais a city in the North District in Israel, about 600 metres (~2000 feet)  above sea level,  some 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of  Nahariya and 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Karmiel. The city was established in 1963 through a municipal merger of the Arab town of Tarshiha and the Jewish town of Ma’alot.

Tarshiha Village has a long history, on the territory, of the village, were found Christian burials of a 4th-century. Excavations of a burials cave unearthed a cross and a piece of glass engraved with a menorah.

Crusader sources from the 12th and 13th century refer to Tarshiha as Terschia, Torsia, and Tersigha. The King had initiated the settlement of Crusader people in nearby Mi’ilya (“Castellum Regis”), and from there settlement spread out to Tarshiha. In 1160, Torsia and several surrounding villages were transferred to a Crusader named Iohanni de Caypha (Johannes of Haifa). By 1217, the village was probably inhabited by Crusader (“Frankish”) people. In 1220 Joscelin III´s daughter Beatrix de Courtenay and her husband Otto von Botenlauben, Count of Henneberg, sold their land, including Tersyha, to the Teutonic Knights. In 1266, Tarshiha was raided by Crusader troops.

According to popular Arabic etymology, the name may have meant “Artemisia Mountain” in the Canaanite language, where Arabic Tuur for “mountain” and shiiH for Artemisia vulgaris (mugwort, or common wormwood) could be identified, or from Taar shiiHaa (“Shiha flew”), i.e. Shiha Jamaluddin (a legendary hero) rushed to the battlefield to fight the Crusaders.

Wikipedia