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Decapolis City

Beth Shean

beth-SHEE-un · Modern Beit She'an National Park, Israel · 32.5008° N, 35.5008° E

Beth Shean was the site where, after the Israelites' defeat at Mount Gilboa, the Philistines fastened the bodies of King Saul and his sons to the city wall (1 Samuel 31:8-13). In the Hellenistic and Roman periods the city was renamed Scythopolis and became the leading member of the Decapolis, the only one of the ten cities located west of the Jordan River.

Archaeology

The site comprises Tel Beth Shean, a mound with roughly 18 occupation layers spanning the Chalcolithic through Iron Age, and the adjacent Roman-Byzantine city of Scythopolis at its base. Visible remains include a well-preserved Roman theater seating roughly 7,000 and the colonnaded Palladius Street. A layer of toppled columns, all fallen in the same direction, documents the catastrophic earthquake of AD 749, after which the city was largely abandoned.

Wide view of the well-preserved Roman theater at Beit She'an, one of the largest and best-preserved in Israel.
Wide view of the well-preserved Roman theater at Beit She'an, one of the largest and best-preserved in Israel. — source & licence
Looking north along the colonnaded Palladius Street of Roman Scythopolis, with Tel Beth Shean rising in the background.
Looking north along the colonnaded Palladius Street of Roman Scythopolis, with Tel Beth Shean rising in the background. — source & licence

On a modern map

Beth Shean today

Further reading

Reflect

The men of Jabesh-gilead risked everything to honor Saul's body at Beth-shean, repaying an old rescue — what debt of gratitude would you take a risk to repay?

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