The name Yarda is Aramaic, and means 'the water spring'.[6]
History
Khirbat Waqqas was located west-northwest of Yarda, and is recognised as the place the Canaanites referred to as Hazor. Victor Guérin found at Kh. Waqqas in 1875: 'Near a small enclosure, in the centre of which is a broken column consecrated to a santon, are shown the remains of an edifice oriented east and west, once probably a church. It was ornamented with monolithic columns in ordinary limestone, some broken pieces of which are still lying about. Other similar fragments are found in the neighbouring houses. Here and there I remarked cut stones, which no doubt belonged to this monument. A little to the south, a hillock is also covered with ruins of houses.'[7] In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) found at Kh. Wakkas only cattle-sheds.[8]
Yarda itself was located at a place called Kh el Loziyeh in the late Ottoman era. In 1881, the SWP found here: "Caves and ruined cattle sheds".[9]
In the 1945 statistics, the population was 20 Muslims,[3] who owned 1,367 dunams of land.[4] Of this, 1,359 dunams were used for cereals,[11] while 8 dunams were classified as un-cultivable area.[12]
Post 1948
After Yarda became depopulated, Ayyelet ha-Shahar took over some of the village land, while in 1949 Mishmar ha-Yarden was also settled on village land.[5]
In 1992 the village site was described: "The truncated walls of some houses still stand, as well as those of a khan, or caravansary. The site is strewn with stones from crumbled houses. A portion of the land is used as pasture."[13]