Beitin Attractions

4km/2.5mi northeast of Ramallah is the Arab village of Beitin, the Bethel ("House of God") of the Old Testament. To the east of Bethel Abraham, coming from the north, set up an altar (Genesis 12,8). After Joshua's conquest of the land Bethel belonged to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18,13), and was later destroyed by the tribe of Ephraim (Judges 1,22). After the division of the kingdom Jeroboam, king of the northern kingdom of Israel, built shrines to a golden calf in Dan and in Bethel. In 621 B.C. the shrine in Bethel was destroyed by King Josiah. In Roman times the troops who took Jerusalem in A.D. 70 were garrisoned here. In the fifth century Bethel was Christian. In 1892 a mosque was built over the remains of a Byzantine church. Excavations were carried out by American archeologists to the north and east of the village. To the southeast are the ruins of a Crusader castle.