Bet Shearim National Park

Small Cistern (29)
Together with Cisterns 28 and 24, it held a reserve of water for the city. All three cisterns are located along the road which ascended from the cemetery to the city.

Sites in the Park
25	26	27	24	29	30
21	23	22	18	15	19
12	13	14	20	28

Description of the site

Historical Background

Archaeological Excavations

Pictures (my visit)

Nature Reserves and
National Parks

updated: 16.04.09 8:39

The Bet She'arim National Park, 75 hectares in area, is located in lower Galilee within the city limits of the town of Kiryat Tivon. Discovered at this site were the remains of the ancient Jewish city of Bet Shearim, built at the top of the hill, and of the underground Jewish cemetery dug into its slopes. In the 2nd century C.E., the Sanhedrin conducted its deliberations here until the beginning of the 3rd century, when it moved to Sepphoris. Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi, head of the Sanhedrin, was buried here. The desire to be laid to rest near him turned 3rd- 4th century Bet She'arim into the main cemetery for Jews from both the land of Israel and abroad.
Within the Park area, a statue has been erected of the famed frontiersman and guard Alexander Zaid (1886-1938). The National Parks Authority paved an approach road to Bet She'arim, installed lighting in some of the burial caves, landscaped the area with trees and broad lawns, and established an Information (enter at the beginning of the tour route.

History of the Site
During the Second Temple period, Bet She'arim was one of many small Jewish settlements in lower Galilee. After the Bar-Kochva Revolt (132-135 C.E.), the center of Jewish life passed from Judea to the Galilee. The Sanhedrin - The highest judicial and ecclesiastical council of the Jews in the land of Israel - wandered from Yavneh to Shfaram, from Shfaram to Usha and from Usha to Bet She'arim.
At the head of the Sanhedrin stood Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi, who taught in the religiou's school and educated an entire generation of followers who became sages. Illness forced him to relocate in Sepphoris, and the Sanhedrin went with him. When he died in 220 C.E., his body was returned to Bet She'arim for burial. The city acquired a reputation throughout the Jewish world, from Babylon to Phoenicia, from Anatolia to Arabia. The city reached its zenith in the 3rd-4th centuries C.E. In 351 a revolt erupted against Gallus, the local Roman governor.
While suppressing the revolt, Roman soldiers destroyed Bet She'arim. Although the city recovered during the 5th-6th centuries, it never returned to its former glory, and was eventually abandoned and forgotten.
In the 19th century, a small Arab village, Sheikh Ibrek, was located here. In 1926, Alexander Zaid, a leader of the famous "Hashomer" organization- defenders of Jewish Palestine - settled with his family on the hill of the erstwhile Arab village and guarded the Jewish settlements in the area. In 1938, Zaid was murdered by an Arab assassin close to his home. His descendants live there to this very day.

Archaeological Excavations
In 1871, the first survey of Bet She'arim was undertaken on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Following a chance discovery by Alexander Zaid of an ancient burial system, archaeological excavations sponsored by the Israel Exploration Society, led by the late Prof. Benjamin Mazar, were carried out from 1936 to 1940. The excavations were reestablished by Prof. Nachman Avigad from 1953-57 on behalf of this society and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The excavations revealed the ancient city, extending over an area of some 13 hectares. Unearthed at the site were the remains of a synagogue, public building (basilica), religious school, dwelling houses, city walls, a gate and an olive oil plant, all dating to the 2nd-4th centuries C.E.
In addition, more than 30 burial caves were excavated - among the most splendid in Israel. ese caves, hewn from the bedrock of the hill, constitute a huge City of the Dead (necropolis). The entrance to every cave is an impressive facade designed in the style of classical architecture. In the center of each fa~ade, one or more stone doors, pivoting on hinges, lead to the subterranean burial chambers, hewn in various sizes and containing burial shelves or large stone coffins (sarcophagi).
Found on the walls and the coffins were decorations and many inscriptions, in Hebrew, Aramaic, Palmyran and Greek, attesting to the origins, professions and family ties of the interred. This information sheds light on Jewish life in the land of Israel and the Diaspora during this period. Among the decorations incised on the walls alongside the inscriptions were Jewish symbols, such as the seven- branched candelabrum (Menorah), ritual palm frond (Lulav), citron (Etrog), censer, ram's horn (Shofar) and the Ark of the Covenant.

"Cave of the Syrian Jews" and "Cave of the Curses (Maledictions)" (12)
A cave with four chambers, on the walls of which are carved seven. branched candelabra, the image of a vulture, and twelve inscriptions In Greek and Aramaic. Some of the inscriptions contain curses like "Whoever opens this tomb will eventually die a bad death". Another inscription, in Greek, read,,; "The vault [i.e., tomb] of Edysius, head of the Council of Elders a man of Antioch".

"Cave of the Ascents" (13)
This cave comprises twelve rooms, hewn with a narrow cross-section, and on two levels. In the cave are about twenty inscriptions in Greek and Hebrew. The most important of them is written in red, and in Hebrew: "This is the last resting place of Yodan son of Levy, Levy is Eternity, at peace, may the grave remain worthy of Yodan son of Levy".

"The Cave of Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi" (14)
large cave comprising three units: a courtyard, the cave itself and an upper building. It's impressive facade comprises three arched doorways. This place is considered to be the putative tomb of Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi, who in his will requested to be buried in Bet Shearim. On the walls are written the names of Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi's two sons, Rabbi Gamliel and Rabbi Shimon, as well as that of Rabbi Hanina the lesser, in Hebrew and Greek. Rabbi Yehuda Hannassi commanded that he be buried in the ground, and not in a sarcophagus and indeed, in the floor of the hindmost chamber a special grave for a couple has been hewn from the bedrock, surrounded by a wall of well dressed stones.

"Cave of the Lulavim (Palm Branches) (18)
Cave with two chambers. On the lintel is inscribed: "Lord, remember Thy servant Sarcadus". On the arches of the innermost chamber, two palm fronds are engraved.

"Cave of the Coffins" (20)
The largest and most interesting of the caves so far unearthed in Bet Shearim. Seventy-five meters in both length and width, it includes two long corridors from which many rooms branch off. In the cave, 135 coffins were found. Twenty of them bear remarkable decorations, mostly taken from the living world: bull heads, eagles, lions, birds, fish and more. On one of the coffins appears – surprising - two figures of Nike, Greek goddess of victory. Some call this cave the "Cave of the Rabbis" because of the many inscriptions recalling the names of rabbis.

"Sarah's Cave" (21)
A cave with four orderly chambers surrounding a central court. On the basalt lintel of the right-hand chamber, there is an inscription in Greek: "The burial place of Theodosia, also called Sarah, from Tyre". This name and others apparently attest to Phoenician origins.

“Cave of the Pilasters" (22)
Comprises a court and a single chamber. Inside are two sculptured pilasters intended for decoration.

"Cave of the Lone Sarcophagus" (23)
A cave comprising three parts: a courtyard, a cave and an upper building (no longer visible). In the front wall was an arch. The original plan called for coffin burials (one decorated coffin was found in the cave); later burial places were added and arcades were hewn into the wall. At the left end is a breach with a view to the Cave of the Coffins (20).

Large Cistern (24)
This cistern se~ed as a burial cave in the past. Later it was expanded and its walls plastered. The excavations here yielded hundreds of pottery vessels, glass vessels and coins from the Byzantine period, a few of which bore Christian symbols.

"Cave of the Head of .the Sidonian Synagogue" (26)
A tomb group notable for the basalt door in its facade.

Cave (27)
All the caves were found ransacked. The grave - robbers did not open the doors of the crypts, but made an opening in the rock above the doors, as is manifest in this cave.

“Cave of the Loved One Rests Here" (15)
Cave with three chambers. The door to the large chamber is decorated with two rosettes, and part of the metal door handle remains. An inscription in Greek, above a burial place at the right end of the chamber, says "The Loved One Rests Here".

"Cave of the Cloth Merchant" (19)
A three-chambered cave with six inscriptions. One of them is inscribed in Greek letters filled with red paint: "Benjamin son of Julius the cloth merchant, son of the most excellent Macrobius." The lintel of the right-hand chamber is decorated with a head and candelabrum, and the inscription "of Socrates".

"The Unexcavated Cave" (30)
Because of the displaced door, there is no doubt that this cave, too, has been burglarized at some time in the past.

"Cave of Itzak Zaira Son of Shimon" (25)
A tomb group typical of Beth She'arim. The main components are most conspicuous: a courtyard reached by descending a flight of stairs) a facade with an impressive stone door in it, imitating a wooden door with reinforcing strips and studs made of metal. The original metal door-handle still exists. On the left there is a chamber with a demolished ceiling which permits one to glance into the interior of the cave. Four rectangular burial platforms are visible.

Large Cistern (28)
A cistern which was turned into a glass workshop. In the center is a huge lump of raw glass weighing 8.8 tons. A museum will open here in the near future.