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Although I am originally from Barcelona, I have been living in Israel for almost 5 years. In this time I had the chance to visit a lot of places. Some of them are well known all over the world such as Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee or the Jordan River. One place you might not have heard of is Beit She’arim National Park. It is located in the town of Kyriat Tivon (Lower Galilee) and it has been recently recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

This is the facade of one of Beit She’arim’s cave: the “Cave of the Coffins”

This National Park is an interesting site for photographers because you can take a quite diverse collection of photos. The remains of the city and the underground Jewish Necropolis are located in a hill surrounded by the beautiful Jezreel Valley, so you can combine your images of the old city with landscape and nature photography.

A bit of Beit She’an History

Beit She’arim was a Jewish city of great importance in ancient times. The settlement in the area started around the 9th century BC and lasted until the 6th century CE. In the 2nd century CE the city reached its glory days when Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi made it his seat and brought with him the Sanhedrin (the highest Jewish judicial and ecclesiastical council in the Land of Israel). The city was destroyed during a revolt against the Roman Empire in the 4th century CE and although it was rebuild, it never regained its glory and was abandoned and forgotten a few centuries later.

The most outstanding remains from the ancient city is its necropolis. After the burial of Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi in Bet She’arim many Jews from the Land of Israel and from the Diaspora made arrangements to be buried in there as well. More than 30 burial caves were excavated. The entrances to the caves are stone facades in classical designs with impressive stone doors which pivot on hinges. The doors lead to subterranean halls and burial chambers hewn in the bedrock and containing burial shelves and sarcophagi. Found on the walls and coffins, are decorations and inscriptions in many ancient languages, providing information about those buried in the graves.

Planning your visit

You can access the Park by car (about 20 minutes east from Haifa) or by bus. However the main buses don’t reach so close to the Park. The average time a visit to the Necropolis takes is estimated in something around 2 hours (for non-photographer visitors). The Park has opening hours that you can check in the website of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. For planning your visit it is important that you know that one part of the Necropolis can be visited just on weekends and only if you register in advance.

The Necropolis is underground, meaning that you will go into several caves in which you will be able to see graves, coffins and wall decorations and inscription. It is a dark environment, so I recommend you to bring a tripod in order to take nice photos (long exposure photography) and a flashlight. Outdoors, there are places with some shadows, but in general there are not a lot of trees. If you want to visit the place in spring-summer, take precautions for not getting dehydrated or suffer a sun stroke. A hat or something to cover your head might be helpful. Don’t forget your water, especially if you also want to walk in the surrounding valley. Once you leave the Necropolis, there are no spots to fill your water bottle.

In the Necropolis

When you are taking photos in the Necropolis you will need to change the settings of your camera quite a lot because you will move between the dark caves to the bright outdoors. You might need to use high ISO values inside the caves. Make sure you put your ISO down when you are outside if you don’t want to end up having unnecessary noisy photos. A good option can be to use the AUTO ISO option if your camera allows it.

The caves entries are great subjects to photograph. Some doors have interesting decorations so have a look before you go in.

You can get even closer to the details.

Inside the caves you might need to set a tripod in order to take sharp photos. In the darker spots it might be difficult for your camera to focus automatically. In these cases, you can use a flashlight to point to some spot inside your frame, focus on this light spot, turn off both the flash light and the auto focus of your camera and shoot. If you need to re-frame, you will need to turn on the auto focus of your camera and repeat all the process. You can also try to focus manually.

The coffins are adorned with decorations as well as the walls, both coffins and walls might be interesting subjects for your images.

Other coffins have flower decorations.

One of the most important decorations found is a Menorah (a seven branched candelabrum) carved in stone; this is one of the oldest depictions of the Menorah that was used in the Jewish Temple, one of the holiest Jewish relics.

The Ancient City

Next to the Necropolis you can find some ruins of the Ancient City such us the Dwelling Houses and one of the Gates. If you like taking photos from viewpoints, I recommend you to go up the little Hill where the city was originally located. On the top there is a photogenic statue of Alexander Zaid (1886-1938), a frontiersman and guard of the area.

From the top you have views to the Jezreel Valley and the Mount Carmel. It is also good spot for panoramas.

Hiking in Jezreel Valley

Jezreel Valley is the biggest Valley in Israel and in the area surrounding Beit Shea’rim there are several trails. I was living right next to the Valley and I loved walking around taking photos. A lot of the photos I use to illustrate my articles were taken in this place. The landscape is mostly agricultural and it change seasonally. In the winter and spring it is quite green, in summer it becomes golden and in autumn the main colors are browns.

This photo is from the end of summer and it looks totally different than in winter.

The morning can be a bit foggy during the winter. The golden hour of the sunset is a great time to take photos in the Valley.

I loved taking portraits in the Valley during the Golden hour. Here my dear friends Rotem and Guy.

I hope you liked Beit Shea’rim. It is a place that I carry deep in my heart because it is where I was going to run, relax and of course, take photos. Feel free to contact me with any question about this Park or if you need more information. Have a happy shooting!!!

Israel is a small but highly diverse country. You can drive from north to south (the longest distance in the country) in just 6 hours. If you come to Israel, you will be able to visit mountains, beaches, ancient cities, religious sites, the desert… Your camera won’t have time to rest! Cities like Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Haifa might be familiar to you. But Israel has also smaller cities that are interesting. One of them is Beit She’an, where you can visit the ruins of an ancient and splendorous city.

A bit of Beit She’an’s History

The city has been populated continuously since the 4^th millennium BC (some 6000 years ago). Along the years it’s been occupied by many nations such as the Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelites, Assyrians, Hellenists, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders and more. The city has even had several names: Ashe’an, Baysan, Beit She’an and Scythopolis.

Beit She’an reached the peak of its glory under the Roman rule when it was called Scythopolis and it was the leading settlement among the Greco-Roman cities of cultural importance. The Roman city is characterized by high-level urban planning and luxurious facilities including a theater (the best-preserved theater in ancient Samaria), a hippodrome, a Cardo, bathhouses, public latrines, a brothel and more. On year 749, the city was completely devastated by the Golan earthquake of 749. A few residential neighborhoods were established on top of the ruins, probably by the survivors, however, the city never recovered its magnificence. In the early decades of the 20th-century, excavations started in order to reveal the ruins of the ancient Roman city.

Visiting the ancient city

Beit She’an is located in the east of the northern region of Israel. You can get there from any big city in Israel by car, bus or the brand new train line. Today the ruins of the ancient city are a National Park maintained by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. This means that in order to visit the ruins you will need to take into account the opening hours of the Park.

The visit will take you between 2-4 hours. But taking into account that you are a photographer, it can be even a bit longer. The place is quite bare and doesn’t have many spots with shade, so it can get really hot especially in spring-summer. Bring with you a hat or something to cover your head and lots of water. It is easy to get dehydrated when you are entertained with your camera. In the hot seasons, the light in Israel can be really hard for the most part of the day. If you like taking photos using softer light, try to get to the ruins as early as possible.

In the Park

When you enter the Park you will find a model that will give you an idea of how the city looked like in its glorious days.,

From this spot the ruins will be spread below you, so it is a good moment to take a panorama.

To your left, in the distance, you will see a complex with a modern day roof. This is one complex of bathhouses. Right in front of you, you will see the long street known as the Cardo (that is the heart of any Roman City) and to the right, you will see the entry to the ancient theater. You can start the tour in any direction you may prefer, but I recommend you to go first to the theater and spend the hottest hours under the roofs of the bathhouses.

Other places you can’t miss are the public latrines, the Cardo and its shops, the brothel or the bath Houses.

The bathhouse was one of the city’s most important social centers. This is where people was getting clean, but also getting beauty treatments, sought medical aid, participated in sports (like wrestling), and enjoyed many other services. In this photo you can see the floor of the “hot room” the columns supported a second floor (on which the people walked), the room was heated by introducing hot air into the space between the two floors.

At its end, the Cardo crossed a second main street. In that point, you could see the marks of the earthquake that devastated the city.

The photographic challenge in the ruins

The biggest photographic challenge you will have in these ruins is to make some order in your composition. An earthquake destroyed the city and it has not been reconstructed, so at some points, it might look like a mess of stones and pieces of buildings.

One way to make a bit of order is to find lines that might lead the composition.

Another suggestion is to use the pieces of buildings to frame other elements.

I hope you liked this ancient roman city. Feel free to contact me with any question about this Park or if you need more information. Have a happy shooting!!!

Tag: photography journey

Beit She’arim: photographing a Necropolis in Lower Galilee, Israel