Hamat Gader
- LIST OF WORKS: see Category:Hamat Gader (subject)
Hamat Gader [now in the State of Israel] was a bath complex in the Decapolis, near Tiberias and Gadara.
Overview
The "hot springs of Gadara", located on the south-eastern part of the Sea of Galilee, were renowned since antiquity for their therapeutic qualities. In the 2nd century CE the Romans built there the second-largest bath complex of the entire Empire, for the convenience of the 10th Roman Legion, which was garrisoned in the nearby city of Gadara. Near the magnificent baths a large Roman theatre was erected in the 3rd century and a synagogue with a beautiful mosaic floor in the 5th century.
The site, damaged by an earthquake in the 7th-century, was restored and renovated by the Umayyad caliph who ruled from Damascus, but then eventually abandoned in the 9th century.