Inside BAR

In the early centuries of the Common Era, scores of elegant bath complexes were constructed at natural mineral springs throughout the Roman empire. And of all these baths, from Britain to Judea, one of the most magnificent was the seven-pool complex at Hammat Gader in the verdant valley of the Yarmuk River. In “Sumptuous Roman Baths Uncovered Near Sea of Galilee,” archaeologists Yizhar Hirschfeld and Giora Solar reveal the historical and architectural grandeur of Hammat Gader.

Yizhar Hirschfeld was born on Kibbutz Beth Keshet in Israel in 1950. Now a Ph.D. candidate in archaeology at Hebrew University, he has already directed several archaeological projects in Israel, including a survey of the Judean Wilderness. Since 1979, Hirschfeld has co-directed the Hammat Gader excavations with Giora Solar.

A graduate of the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) in Haifa, Solar has worked as an architect at numerous digs in Israel, including Tel Dan, the City of David, Shikmona, Aphek, and Lachish. Along with planning the reconstruction of the Hammat Gader baths, Solar is currently co-directing the restoration and reconstruction of the Citadel in Jerusalem’s Old City.