Beit She'an

Beit She'an

Where Rome ruled and empires collided

Beit She'an, in the Jordan Valley, was a crossroads of civilizations from the Canaanites onward. In the Bible, the Philistines hung the bodies of King Saul and his sons on its walls (1 Samuel 31). Under Rome it was Scythopolis, the only city of the Decapolis west of the Jordan, and its well-preserved ruins include a theater, bathhouses, and a colonnaded main street. An earthquake in 749 CE brought much of it down, and fallen columns still lie where they fell. The archaeological park is one of the largest in Israel, beside a modern town of the same name.

Glossary: Beit She'an