This we crossed, and then rose upon sloping ground on our left. At 12.05 we came out upon the brow of the deep Valley Mussin, coming from the plain of Fendekumieh; it is said to unite with Wady Abu Nar in the western plain beyond Jett. We reached the bottom of the valley at 12.20; and noticed its deep water-channel, now dry.—The road thus far from 'Attil was evidently very old; but we saw no appearance of pavement. Whether this was the ancient way from Caesarea to Sebaste may be doubted; since a more feasible route exists from the plain along the great Wady Sha'ir, which comes down from Nabulus, and is the next valley south of Wady Mussin." In 1863, Victor Guérin passed by and noted the village south of Attil. He described it as large, and occupying a hilltop. In 1882, the PEF's "Survey of Western Palestine" (SWP) described it as "a village of moderate size, on a hill, with a well to the west. On the north is open low ground. It is surrounded with magnificent groves of olives, occupying an area of about three square miles towards the south." In the early 20th century, residents of Deir el-Ghusun established agricultural hamlets known as khirba, used mainly during the plowing and harvesting seasons, on the outskirts of the village. From the 1920s onwards, six of them became independent villages. In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Deir al Ghusun had a population of 1,410, all Muslims, increasing by the 1931 census to 2,060, still all Muslim, in 451 houses. In the 1945 statistics, Deir al-Ghusun was counted with the villages which later made up Zemer, and together they had a population of 2,860 Muslims, with a total of 27,770 dunums of land. Of this, a total of 183 dunams were used for citrus and bananas, 13,757 were for plantations and irrigated land, 11,585 dunums were for cereals, while 94 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas. The villages of Jarisha and Masqufa are located within Deir al-Ghusun but are governed by independent village councils. During 1948 Arab–Israeli War, 14,000 dunams of Deir al-Ghusun land were seized by Israel.