BEIT SHE’AN, Israel — What’s new in Israel these days? How about antiquities?
Roman-era ruins in Beit She’an. [Paul Lungen photo]
Israel’s hip new image may be uppermost and toppermost on the minds of Israel’s travel gurus – what with the country’s great restaurants, wineries, clubs, concerts and elegant seaside promenades to promote – but there’s much to be said about visiting scenes of the country’s ancient past.
Whether it’s Jerusalem, Caesarea, Beit She’an, Tzippori, Masada or Acre (Akko) – the latter, at 1,000 years of age, the baby in this grouping – Israel’s ancient sites remain an intriguing window onto the nation’s past. The first four attest to the sophistication, wealth and comfort of ancient times, while the latter gives evidence to the tremendous construction and scale of the European incursion into the Holy Land during Crusader times – almost yesterday in this ancient land.
Beit She’an Amphitheatre
Many years ago, during a visit to Israel, I passed through Beit She’an, changing buses to take the local transportation to nearby kibbutzim to visit friends.
In recent years, however, archeologists have made it a destination in its own right, thanks to digs that have revealed a handsome Roman/Byzantine-era centre – one of the 10 cities of the Decapolis and once the most important city in northern Israel. The city was situated in the strategic corridor along the Jordan Valley and across from the Jezreel Valley, and for the Romans, it provided a good launching-off point to send soldiers in any direction to quell disturbances.
It’s that Roman-era city that’s on display today, though its history goes back much further. Archeologists have uncovered 19 levels of civilizations dating back 4,000 years. Students of the Bible will recall that after a battle at nearby Mount Gilboa, the residents of Beit She’an displayed the bodies of King Saul and his sons on the city walls.
Caesarea Aqueduct
Like other Roman-era cities, Beit She’an featured a main street running north/south and an east/west cross road. Shops lined either side of the collonaded street and graceful, towering columns – until recently, underground – frame both sides of the 150-metre-long Palladius Street, named after a fourth century governor.
Like other Roman cities, Beit She’an had a substantial theatre, which was built in the first century CE and seated 7,000.
The remains of bath houses, temples and shops still can be found at the site. The city’s heyday came to a crashing end in 749 CE when an earthquake devastated the city. At its peak in Byzantine times, Beit She’an was home to as many as 40,000 people.
Caesarea was one of the mega-construction projects initiated by Herod 2,000 years ago. A prolific builder, he was responsible not only for the expansion and renovation of the ancient temple in Jerusalem, but he also fortified Masada, built Herodium and took a tiny Phoenician port and turned it into one of the largest ports in the world at the time. Attesting to the grandeur of the project, black and red granite was shipped from Egypt’s Aswan area and marble was brought from Crete.
Tzippori Mosaic
The city was named after Herod’s Roman ally, Augustus Caesar, and was built to take advantage of trade between the Roman world and the east.
A museum in the old city shows how Caesarea appeared back in the day, with a white marble temple facing west for all incoming visitors to see, a massive hippodrome (the oval track still exists) and a semi-circular theatre that seats 15,000 spectators.
A little to the north, you can still see the remains of an aqueduct that supplied water to the city. The aqueduct – only a few hundred metres still remains – ran 17 kilometres from Mount Carmel. Tzippori is another gem that has been excavated in the Galilee, a few kilometres from Nazareth. A city that thrived in Byzantine times, it was home to large communities of Christians and Jews. A synagogue uncovered in Tzippori featured intricate and beautiful mosaic floors that included human representations as well as a Jewish zodiac.
Also known by the Greek name Sepphoris, Tzippori was in mishnaic times (sixth century CE) a centre of Jewish religious and spiritual life in the Galilee.
Akko (Acre) is another archeological marvel that bills itself as “one of the wonders of the world.” The United Nations apparently agreed, naming it a World Heritage Site. Although the city predates biblical times, much of today’s old city dates back only to Crusader and Ottoman periods. It is, as our local guide described it, “an open air museum.”
Above ground you can visit Crusader and Ottoman quarters, a colourful suk, Turkish baths, seaside restaurants, a Baha’i temple and theOttoman-era citadel that was used by the British as a prison. It was from that prison that in May 1947 the Irgun staged a jail break. Earlier, prisoners had tried digging their way out, only to find massive amounts of rubble and earth below, which was used to support construction of the Ottoman city above.
That area below the prison cells has now been excavated and an underground Crusader city revealed. Visitors can view a complex of halls and a church, built by the Hospitallers knights. So far, about 20,000 square metres has been excavated of the Crusader citadel, less than four per cent of the original city. “Everything is as they left it,” according to a local guide, adding Akko is “the Pompeii of the Middle East.”