Beit She'an occupies a strategic junction between the Jordan valley and the plain of Jezreel, and the tell above the site holds occupation layers reaching back to the Bronze Age, including a period of Egyptian administration. The Roman and Byzantine city at its foot, known as Scythopolis, was the most important urban centre of the region: colonnaded avenues, a theatre seating thousands, monumental bathhouses, a nymphaeum, shops and mosaic floors. In the eighth century an earthquake destroyed it in a matter of moments, toppling the colonnades in the direction of the shock, and the city was never rebuilt on the same scale. Excavation has left many of the fallen columns where they lie, which gives the site its particular character. Filmed in 4K with extensive aerial coverage, it is one of the most spectacular classical sites in the region.
