Travel Guide Bet She’an

Located on the road between Jerusalem and Tiberias, about 15 000 kilometres south of the town, the town of Bet She'an, a town of about inhabitants, present in itself little interest, but its archaeological site is one of the most interesting in the country. Bet She'an site was already inhabited over 3000 years BC, a strategic point located in a fertile valley, at the crossing of important trade routes. At the end of the bronze age, from the th century BC, it was already an important city and an administrative centre of the Egyptian Empire. The Bible mentions Bet She'an as one of the cananéennes cities that was not conquered by the Israelites under the leadership of Joshua (Joshua 17: 11-12; Judges 1: 27). Bet She'an is again cited after the defeat of King Saul's Jewish Army, defeated by the Me on Mount Guilboa (south of town), when they empalèrent the bodies of the king and his sons on the city walls (I Samuel 31: 10-12). Bet She'an peaked during the Roman and Byzantine periods. The city was then renamed «Scythopolis», or «town of Des», and it was this period that the majority of the ruins that can be seen today. At the beginning of Arab domination, Bet She'an declined before being destroyed by an earthquake in 749. In the th century, a small fortress was built here by the crusaders, but the town was never rebuilt. Subsequently, it lasted only a small Arab village, the majority of which took the road to exile in 1948.