Beith Shean - Archaeology in Israel
Ancient Beit She'an, located in the Jordan Valley some 30 km. south of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), was of strategic importance because here the road from Jerusalem northwards met the road from the northern coast eastwards to Transjordan. This strategic position in the fertile Beit She'an valley made it one of the major cities in the Land of Israel.
Beit She'an (help·info) (Hebrew: בֵּית שְׁאָן; Arabic: بيسان, Bayt Šān or بيسان, Beesān (help·info), Beisan or Bisan)[1] is a city in the North District of Israel which has played an important role historically due to its geographical location at the junction of the Jordan River Valley and Jezreel Valley. It has also played an important role in modern times, acting as the regional center for the numerous villages in the Beit She'an Valley Regional Council.
Beit She'an's location has often been strategically significant, as it sits at the junction of the Jordan River Valley and the Jezreel Valley, essentially controlling access from the interior to the coast, as well as from Jerusalem to the Galilee. Its name is believed to derive from the early Canaanite "house of tranquility".
Beit She'an is first listed among Thutmose III's conquests in the fifteenth century BCE, and the remains of an Egyptian administrative center from the XVIII and XIX dynasties have been excavated.
The Bible mentions it as a Canaanite city in the Book of Joshua, and its conquest by David and inclusion in the later kingdom is noted, and large Solomonic administrative buildings destroyed by Tiglath-pileser III were uncovered from this period.[ Its ninth century BCE biblical capture by the Pharaoh Shishaq is corroborated by his victory list.
In the Hellenistic period, Beit She'an was renamed Scythopolis (city of the Scythians) and grew, extending southeast to Tel Itztaba. The city reached its maximum size and prosperity during the Roman- Byzantine period, when a new civic center was built in the valley southwest of the tel, surrounded by residential quarters; in the Byzantine period it was also fortified with a city wall.
In the Early Arab period, Beit She'an-Scythopolis declined; it was destroyed by earthquake in 749. A small fortress was built by the Crusaders in the 12th century, to control the crossroads and to guard against Muslim penetration of their kingdom, but the city was never rebuilt. Only a small Arab village existed there in later periods.
In 1999, Beit She'an was incorporated as a city. Geographically, it lies in the middle of the Beit She'an Valley Regional Council.
According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the population of the municipality was 16,600 at the end of 2007.
In 2005, the ethnic makeup of the city was 99.5% Jewish and other non-Arab (97.3% Jewish), with no significant Arab population. See Population groups in Israel. The population breakdown by gender was 8,200 males and 8,100 females.
Read more in the flow link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_Shean