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Beit Shean - A City of Past and Present
Strategically located between the Jordan River basin and the Jezreel Valley, Beit Shean is the largest city and the administrative center of the Beit Shean Valley district situated in Israel's northern region. Beit Shean owes its strategic significance, both historically and at present, to its acting as a connective band between Israel's interior land and its coastal region as well as between Jerusalem and the northern Galilee region.
The city of Beit Shean is noted in the Bible as a Canaanite city, with its name likely deriving from the Canaanite for "House of Tranquility". Prior to its inhabitance by the Canaanites, the city of Beit Shean is said to have been an annex of the Egyptian empire. It was only after the Canaanite's departure from the region that Beit Sheran became inhabited by Jews, having been conquered by Kind David.
Perhaps most important to those on a Jewish heritage tour to Beit Shean is the city's role in the famous Maccabees Revolt against the Hellenistic Emperor, Antiochus the Fourth. Following a set of restrictions issued by Antiochus forbidding Jewish religious practice within the Hellenistic Kingdom, the Jewish liberation movement known as the Maccabees set out to combat the Hellenists and win back religious freedom in the formerly Jewish towns. Their victory over the Hellenists in Beit Shean served as an important show of courage and established them as a force to be reckoned with in the region.
Beit Shean was conquered yet again during the 4 th century by the Byzantines, and was turned into a predominantly Christian city. Nevertheless, the city's Jewish population remained a small, if well established, minority.
Other than these major periods that have been amply documented, thanks to its convenient location and fertile grounds, the city of Beit Shean has been consistently inhabited since antiquity with an ever expanding and shrinking Jewish population.
Beit Shean- Archeology in Israel
The archeological excavations found in and around the city of Beit Shean pay tribute to the many cultures and peoples that inhabited it. A good selection of these archeological excavations can be seen in the Tel Beit Shean National Park located just outside the city limits. Here visitors will find over 15 city layers, breathtakingly mounted one atop another.
Indeed, in its several acres Tel Beit Shean houses some of Israel's most unforgettable archeological finds. Among the clearest and best preserved date back to the Bronze Age and are artifacts from the time of the Egyptian settlement in the area. Since excavations got underway in the late 1980s, tours to Israel have steadfastly focused their sites on this area. As excavations deepened and more artifacts were found, tourist interest in Beit Shean grew steadily. The work of uncovering the region's hidden treasures was completed in 1996 and currently displays a large Roman amphitheater and Byzantine-styled street fully equipped with period columns, several Roman bath houses, a Byzantine basilica, a Roman temple and numerous mosaics.
Whether on a group travel or on a private tour to Israel, Tel Beit Shean National Park is a destination not to be missed. Especially if combined with a tour of the modern day city, a stroll though the archeological park will give tourists a fine idea of the elaborate history of this ancient city.
Beit Shean and the Adjoined Mount Gilboa
Only 7 km away from the city, Mount Gilboa has both a religious and a practical significance to Beit Shean. Primarily for practical purposes, Mount Gilboa provided the ancient inhabitants of Beit Shean with ample highly durable rocks with which to build their homes, events halls and amphitheaters. On the religious front, it was on the walls of Beit Shean that the Philistines hanged the bodies of King Saul and his sons after defeating them in the battle on Mount Gilboa.
One thing to keep in mind if on a tour to Israel and visiting Beit Shean in the summer months, try to arrive here during the early hours of the morning or around sunset since Israeli summers are hot and the Beit Shean Valley region gets uncomfortably warm on most summer days.
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