The Necropolis at Beth She’arim

In the 1930s and 1950s, archaeologists excavated a labyrinthine network of burial caves (photo below) carved into the rolling hills of southwestern Galilee, not far from the ancient town of Beth She’arim and about 12 miles east of modern Haifa. When the digging was done, a total of 27 catacombs had been discovered—the remains of a vast necropolis that, between the late second and mid-fourth centuries C.E., was one of the most important burial sites in all Palestine. Here the bodies of numerous esteemed rabbis and their relatives were interred, as were the remains of prominent Jews from all parts of Palestine and the Diaspora.