512 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



We now reach Tiberias. It has a population of about 6,000, 

 of whom 4,000 are Jews, 300 Christians, and the rest Moslems, 

 and is one of the four sacred cities of the Jews in Palestine. The 

 earlier city of Tiberias was spoken of by Joshua (xix, 35) under 

 the name of Rakkath. The Roman city was built by Herod Anti- 

 pas, and dedicated by him to the Emperor Tiberias (A. D. 16). 

 After the Battle of Hattin, 1187, Tiberias fell into the hands of 

 Saladin. 



The Hammam or hot baths (temperature 144° F.) are to the 

 south of the city, and are visited by people from all parts of the 

 country. They occupy the site of Hammath, spoken of by Joshua 

 (xix, 35) and by Pliny. Our Lord never entered Tiberias, as, 

 according to early tradition, it was built on an ancient cemetery. 



We now proceed round the foot of the lake and up the gorge 

 of the Yarmuk, from Tiberias to Deraa. Following the caravan 

 road down the western side of the lake we come to an old ruined 

 bridge over the Jordan, about a mile south of where it flows out 

 of the Sea of Galilee, and ford the river on horseback; and after 

 crossing the railway from Haifa to Deraa and Damascus at the 

 station of Semakh, we follow the railway up the gorge of the River 

 Yarmuk to the hot springs of Amatha. These springs are eight 

 in number, some of them several miles up the valley, but the principal 

 ones are close to a place called El Hamma. Their temperatures 

 are 115°, 103°, 92°, and 83° F., respectively. The principal spring 

 is in a basin about 40 feet in circumference and 5 feet deep. The 

 water is so hot that the hand can not be kept in it for any length of 

 time, and is considered by the Arabs to be a sovereign cure for 

 many disorders. Herod is supposed to have come here to be cured, 

 and the Baths of Amatha were considered by the Romans as second 

 only to those of Baise, and were much extolled by Eusebius and 

 other ancient writers. 



From the hot springs we climb up by a very steep pathway by 

 the side of the gorge to Gadara, occupying a magnificent site on 

 the western promontory of the plateau overlooking the Lake of 

 Tiberias. Captured by Antiochus the Great, 218 B. C, it was, 20 

 years afterwards, taken from the Syrians by Alexander Jannseus 

 after a siege of 10 months. The Jews retained possession of it for 

 some time, but, the city having been destroyed during their civil 

 wars, it was rebuilt by Pompey to gratify the desire of one of his 

 freedmen, who was a Gadarene. It was surrendered to Vespasian 

 in the Jewish war. It was one of the most important cities east of 

 the Jordan and called by Josephus the capital of Persea, and was 

 subsequently the seat of the bishopric Palestina Secunda. 



The ruins of the two open-air theaters still exist, one with a full 

 view of the Lake of Galilee in the distance below. There are enor- 

 mous quantities of tombs everywhere, by which the neighborhood 



