Hammat Gader; Emmatha Complete

Description

Excavations in the vicinity of the renowned thermal-bath complex at Hammat Gader, built over hot springs, revealed the remains of a synagogue and a Roman theatre. The leisure complex reached its peak of activity and prestige between the fifth and seventh centuries. Within the baths, the Hall of Fountains alone preserves six construction-related inscriptions. Composed in an elevated rhetorical Greek, these texts name, among others, Empress Eudocia (421–460), Emperor Anastasius I (491–518), and Caliph Muʿāwiyya (661–680). The complex was probably destroyed in the earthquake of 749. Plan source: After Y. Hirschfeld (ed.), The Roman Baths of Hammat Gader: Final Report (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1997), p. 3; redrawn and accessed via http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=1513.