Bet Shean

Bet Shean, the Greek Scythopolis, was one of the great cities of olden days. An imprtant junction from the roads fanned out north to Syria, east to to Jordan, south to Egypt and west to the Mediterranean, it was all the time a supply center for the varied produce growing in the area. Exzavation show 18 levels of occupation, from the Chalcolithic era (the fourth millennium B.C.) onward. Finds included Egyptian temples and several stelae inscribed with hieroglyphic writing. These and other items discovered  prove that for at least three hundred years, from about the fifteenth to the twelfth centuries B.C., Bet Shean was the administrative headquarters of Egyptian rule.

I walked on mosaic floor that was laid thousands of years ago. 

 1 Samuel 31:10 tells of Saul's death in battle with the Philistines, who "fastened his body to the walls of Beth-shean". During the time of Christ, the city was one of the Graeco-Roman cities of the Decapolis, an alliance of cities on both sides of the Jordan. From the Hasmonean era many Jews lived in the city. They were massacred around 70 A.D., at the end of the Roman-Jewish war, but in the Talmudic period Jews resettled there and were active in learning and commerce.

Look who's reading the Star News!

 Flax was grown, linen woven and cloth manufactures, for Bet Shean was then a world center for the textile trade and for food production. Jew and Gentile seem to have coexisted side by side, for in addition to the Roman theater dating from 200 A.D., remains of several large synagogues were found, including one with Samaritan inscription. There are also remains of a Roman  colonnaded street which was once lined with shops.

 The early Arab period saw the continuation of Bet Shean's properity, and it was famed for its dates, rice and vineyards. However in 749 an earthquake felled the town and thereafter it fell into obscurity.

I think I wallked a thousand miles today.