Day 06 - Beth Shean, Mt. Carmel, Caesarea Maritima

Today we started with a hike up a hill known as a “Tel” (multiple civilizations built on top of the ruins of the previous, evidence of 19 civilizations on this particular site) to view the ruins of city gates to Beth She’an. We discussed guard duty at the city gates and saw evidence of a Roman stone game that likely kept the guards entertained during the quiet hours of their watch. We continued up the hill to a newer set of city gates that looked over the Jezreel Valley and were taught this is the area where King Saul fell on his sword to avoid murder by the advancing Philistines who has just murdered his 2 sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, & Malchishua. (1 Samuel 31).  

As we moved on and crested the hill we came upon a bird’s eye view of a massive Roman city that has been excavated. The site was stunning, the city is Schythopolis built in 63 BC and is one of 10 Roman cities known as the Decapolis. 

This area is very important because it was the crossroads of this area is where north to south and east to west roads come together. The surrounding Jezreel Valley is perfect for fertile soil and adequate water for any civilization to thrive. The names of the roads are an indicator of the importance of the time:

Decomanos (10 hands) was the east to west road and Cardo (the heart) the north to south.  

Scythopolis was built with not only local stone, basalt, but they imported granite and marble indicative of the wealth of the city. Street merchants paid taxes that led Roman to make cities fancier, mosaic walkways, marble and granite. Petruvius, the architect, invented plumbing. The first known sewer system is found here. 

The impact this Roman culture had on the Israelites communities surrounding them was surely strong pulling them away from Yahweh once again (1 John 2). 

Next stop was Megiddo. This is the prime location of Israel. It is surrounded by the Jezreel Valley, the grain basket of Israel. It is surrounded by mountains. It was built by Solomon as a “chariot city” a place for wars….(2 Chronicles 35:22 & Revelation 16:16)

Cesarea Maritima was our final site of the day. This was the largest harbor of the world when it was built by Herod the Great. This is the city where Peter began his public ministry when he was called by Cornelius the Roman Centurion to come teach. This is also the site where Paul demanded to be tried as a Roman citizen as he stood in the court at Herod the Great’s seaside palace. (Acts 10 & Acts 25).

Liz Samoylenko