Our main goal for today was to visit Beit She'an to see the fallen city of Scythopolis and, time permitting, Susita in the late afternoon. We started off early just after watching our first sunrise over the Sea of Galilee and arrived 45 minutes in Beit She'an only to find almost everything was closed for breakfast. We found a number of roadside signs advertising a McDonald's, however this turned out to be all lies. Eventually, we found another McDonalds around 8 kilometers away! Sadly this was also closed, although we did find a cafe/bakery next door and enjoyed our first Israeli breakfast. The previous night I came up with a huge list of reasons why we should go out and do some train spotting to get it out of my system and after blurting them all out in one breath, Vinci agreed. she probably felt sorry for me knowing at this moment I could have been in the bottom of a coal mine in China.
The previous day I had located a small rural road with a bridge traversing the rail line just off Route 71 (32°31'38.15"N 35°27'33.22"E) which looked promising. Vinci went for a walk to explore the local flora and in a stroke of luck, our first train appeared within minutes, a Vossloh Euro 3200 diesel hauled seven car passenger train. Only 15 minutes later the same train returned in reverse. The standard practice for Israel's passenger trains is to have a single locomotive on one end and the rear passenger car equipped with a driving controls, eliminating the need to reverse the locomotive.
After this quick fix, we were back on the road to Beit She'an. Be'it Shean is one of Israel's greatest treasures. It is filled with history going back nearly 7,000 years. Beit She'an is usually brimming with tourists, but with visits already in serious decline, we would have this site almost completely to ourselves after midday.
Tel Beit She'an
Human existence has been traced as far back as the 5th millenium BC at Tel Beit She'an with traces of some twenty settlements found so far beginning with the Neolithic period and as far as medieval times. Despite its name translating from Hebrew as "House of Rest", throughout the ages, this place has proved to be anything but. Bet She'an was considered extremely valuable real estate as it is situated where the Jordan and Harod valleys converge and the 40,000sqm hill offers extraordinary views of this fertile area for miles in all directions. All of these factors have seen it fought over by various tribes for hundreds of years with the city being built, captured, destroyed and rebuilt numerous times.
The Egyptians ruled Bet She'an from 16th century to the 12th centuries BC before becoming a stronghold of the Canaanites. The Philistines took possession of it in the 11th century B.C. after a huge battle on nearby Mount Gilboa. This event is recorded in the Bible in 1 Samuel and describes where the Philistines returned to Mount Gilboa to strip the dead of their possessions and came across the bodies of King Saul and his sons. They were beheaded and taken back to Tel Bet She'an where they were strung up on the city walls. Israelites from Jabesh returned in the night to remove the corpses and give them a proper funeral.
The city was soon destroyed by King David and later rebuilt by his son King Solomon as part of his expanding northern empire. Only five years after Solomon’s death, Egypt successfully invaded the city again and it remained under Egyptian rule for the next 200 years before the pesky Assyrian's turned up and completely destroyed the city.
For almost 300 years, the city lay abandoned until the Greeks arrived, rebuilt and renamed the city Scythopolis. Time for a period of that rest now, yes? Yeah, nah.. the Jewish rebellion forces - the Hasmonean's - destroyed the city again! When the Roman's arrived in the first century B.C., they decided again to have a crack at rebuilding the city but rather than on the same site, would instead choose the area at the bottom of the hill on the south side.
Today, the only permanent residents in Tel Beit She'an and Scythoplis are hundreds of Agama lizards which can be seen sunbaking, doing push-ups and darting between all the stones. These lizards can be found all over the middle east. They have the ability to change colour and can grow up to 35cms in length. Many of the lizards we saw were completely unfazed by our presence.
The walk up to the top of Tel Beit She'an is an arduous 300 meters of grueling steps. This is not easy for a middle aged fat man like me, however it does offer spectacular views of Scythopolis city below, as well as Mount Gilboa. Fro here, one can also see the remains of a single arched bridge called the Truncated (or cut off) bridge built approximately 1,000 years ago during the Mamluk period.
Scythopolis
The new Scythopolis was built by the Romans at the base of Tel Bet She'an from 63 B.C. and was the largest city of the Decapolis (10 great Roman cities in the middle east). It flourished well into the Byzantine era, but gradually the population decreased and was taken over during the Arab conquest. Despite this, the new occupiers lived in harmony with the Christians and Pagans until the city was completely destroyed by a severe earthquake in the 8th century AD and has been abandoned since.
The remains of Scythopolis show only a fraction of how large this city was, but thankfully includes much of the larger public buildings. The city was well planned, well built and employed the latest building techniques, technology and luxury available at the time. There are four main roads within the city centre, the main one being Palladius street (seen above). The next is Silvanus Street which connects at the end of Palladius street running in a south east direction and providing access to many other public buildings. Northern Street, as the name suggests, heads north from Palladius street and mostly served a large residential area. Valley Street heads north off Silvanus Street and continued on to the city gates, a large market place and eventually to the Truncated bridge (which was built after the demise of the city).
Amongst the largest buildings that remain is the massive theatre that dominates the view of the city. It was large enough to hold 7,000 spectators and was used in its early days as a place for Gladiator bouts and as an entertainment venue throughout the Byzantine era. The exterior of the theatre was very beautiful with huge marble and granite columns, many pieces of which have been collected and are in the process of being documented for a possible restoration. There are three tiers of seats and only the lower tier was still in place when the city was excavated. It is slowly being tactfully restored and is now used for the night shows that take place. There is an equally large amphitheatre outside the ground of the reserve towards the modern city of Beit She'an where horse races took place.
Silvanus street, as seen from the top of Tel Bet She'an in the photo above, shows the magnificent collonade. A large public pool was built running parallel to the street. The huge Eastern bath house complex built during the Roman period can be seen in the top right hand corner. Sylvanus street was also surrounded by large monuments and a nymphaeum (public fountain).
Many inscriptions on the buildings and mosaics are in Greek which was the common language used by most of the population. Scythopolis has a very good collection of Mosaics, most dating from the 2nd to 4th century A.D.
The photo below shows the view of Palladius street heading south as seen from Tel Bet She'an. The entrance and visitor centre are just out of view at the top of the photo. The road was built over during the Byzantine period and a large double storey row of shops was built over a Roman era fountain. Marble was extensively used on the paths and facade during this reconstruction and a large mosaic dedicating the works by Governor Palladius was unearthed during the excavations. The street was then dedicated in his name.
Much of the city remains as it was after the earthquake. There are literally hundreds of felled ornate columns everywhere you look, however the one's still upright give an excellent impression of how the city would have looked like.
The Western bath house complex was built during the Byzantine era and went through a number of renovations during its life, as seen recorded in inscriptions by the city's governors. The complex spans 2.2 acres and contained a number of heated and tepid pools. The heating system for the hot pools used a system known as a hypocaust. A wood fired furnace provided hot air which would evenly pass through closely grouped pillars as seen in the photo below. The pillars would also function as support for the heavy marble tiles forming the bottom of the bath floor.
Some of the old painted Byzantine decorations are still visible on the external walls of the buildings, although the plaster walls on the interior walls have all worn away completely a long time ago.
The Eastern bath house complex almost as large as the western complex that replaced it. Some of the interesting features that have been unearthed include the same Hypocaust type heating system as the Western Bath house, showing that the same heating system for bath houses was used for centuries. A square structure with four pillars adorned with niches at its corners supported a stone vault and appears to have been used as a frigidarium, or cold water bath hall.
The eastern bath house contains the largest public toilet I have ever seen in my life. This was used especially during events at the large theatre which sits next door. The general arrangement was a large a hall with a channel of water constantly flowing around the perimeter. Contoured marble pillars jut out of the wall for the user to sit between - as I demonstrate below. It's all then a matter of focus, a mix of voluntary and involuntary muscle movements and perhaps a few encouraging words from your neighbour to let nature take its course. For those who are even more intrigued about the clean up process, the Roman's used butt sponges, essentially a dried out sea sponge fixed to a stick. During my high school education, my Latin teacher Mrs. Monsbourgh (who I know would have loved to have seen this place and would be equally impressed that I was romping around a Roman city), explained the due process of the sponge sticks. From memory these were a re-useable item. My guess is they could be picked up from the entrance and (one would hope) dropped off in a large bucket for cleaning.
Some of the ancient terracotta pipe system is exposed on the exterior of the bathhouse, although sad that many seem to find it acceptable to pick bits off for a souvenir. The sewerage systems of the bathhouse and latrines was quite impressive with channels and underground pipes sending the waste water far out of the city.
What remains of the city is around 20% of the original size. There are still large areas that may be excavated at a later date, but some has been lost forever with the modern city of Beit She'an now built on top of the remains. As we had completed the city by about 1pm, we headed back to the Sea of Galilee to ensure we would have enough time to visit Susita (or Hippos), the only other city of the Decapolis still within Israel's borders.
"When the people of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all their valiant men marched through the night to Beit Sh'ean. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beit She'an and went to Jabesh, where they burned them."
- 1 Samuel 31:11,12
Extra photos of Scythopolis have been added below
A Greek inscription on a large headstone. This dates from the Byzantine era
A general view of Scythopolis looking down Paladius Street
One of the many mosaics found
A cracked ornate column lies in situ near the nymphauem
Columns remain toppled after the great earthquake of 749AD
Continue to Part 5 - click here