On his way back from the house of Lavan to his parents in Eretz Yisrael, the Patriarch Yaakov purchased a portion of land in the city of Shechem.
The city was the site of a war between its inhabitants and the sons of Yaakov who avenged the violation of their sister Dinah by a local prince.
It was here too that Yosef was sold into slavery by his brothers and where he was eventually buried in the plot his father had purchased.