Sebastia

Sebastia

Capital of a biblical kingdom

Sebastia, in northern Samaria, was the site of ancient Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, which King Omri founded in the ninth century BCE. Herod the Great rebuilt it in Roman style and renamed it Sebaste in honor of Augustus. Visitors can see a Roman forum, a theater, and the foundations of an Israelite royal palace. Later a Crusader cathedral was built over a church said to hold the tomb of John the Baptist. The ruins sit above a village of the same name, in an area administered by the Palestinian Authority.

Glossary: Sebastia