Bet Shean Attractions

In the 11th century it was captured by the Philistines, advancing inland from the sea. After the Philistines defeated Saul and his sons in a battle on nearby Mount Gilboa in 1010 B.C. they "put [Saul's] armor in the house of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan"; then during the night men from Gilead, beyond the Jordan, recovered the bodies and gave them burial (1 Samuel 31).

David, Saul's successor, conquered the Philistine town, which for some unknown reason was abandoned in the eighth century B.C. In the third century B.C. it was resettled by Scythian veterans and renamed Scythopolis. In the Hasmonean period (second and first century B.C.) numbers of Jews came to live in the town. In 63 B.C. Pompey declared it a free city and it became a member of the Decapolis, the League of Ten Cities. Under Roman rule, thanks to its productive agriculture and textile industry, it enjoyed a fresh period of prosperity, to which the numerous remains bear witness. In Byzantine times the town had a population of some 40,000; most of them were Christians, but there was also a Jewish community. This period came to an end with the Arab conquest in 639, and soon afterwards the town was destroyed by an earthquake and abandoned.

In the 12th century Bet Shean was held by Tancred, Prince of Galilee. After its conquest by Saladin in 1183 the town had a Jewish population, one member of which was Rabbi Estori Haparhi, who wrote the earliest work in Hebrew on the geography of Palestine. Later increasing numbers of Arabs settled in the town, and its name was changed to Beisan. A relic of the Turkish period is the Seraglio in the Municipal Park, an administrative building erected in 1905. Jews began to return to the town in 1937, and many more have come since 1948.