remains of a basilica in classical style. This is more properly the Senate House (Curia) or Council Chamber of the city; and the tiers of seats, forming a_half-theatre around the well of the apse, are well seen. This part was roofed, while the forecourt was open with a surrounding cloister. The style and character of the work are Herodian.
Other features of interest are the fine Roman gateway to the west, with circular flanking towers, upon older square foundations; an avenue of columns indicating the principal road through the town; and the site of the Stadium on the low ground to the north-east.
Below the village stands the well-preserved Crusaders' church of S. John the Baptist, now a mosque. Tradition places both the beheading and the burial of the Baptist at Samaria.
Taʾanach and Megiddo.—In the rich plain of Esdraelon or Jezreel, north-west of Jenin, lie the ancient sites of Taʾanach and Megiddo, where excavations have brought to light not only a good deal of pottery of an early period, but many evidences of Babylonian culture.
Beisan.—East of Jenin, in the Jordan valley, lies Beisan, the Beth-Shan of the Old Testament and the Greek Scythopolis. Excavations were begun here, in the imposing mound called Tel Hosn, by the University of Pennsylvania in 1921, and are proceeding. The site dominates the approaches to Palestine by the Jordan and Esdraelon from the direction of Damascus, and is aptly called the key to Palestine. Trial sections have disclosed stratifications leading back to the earliest phases of settlement in the Bronze Age. Systematic clearing from the top has recovered the plans of superposed mediaeval and Byzantine cities, with monastic buildings of the later date and a great rotunda of the earlier date. The excavations promise results of great interest. A monument of the Egyptian Pharaoh Seti I. has been found, together with tombs of the same period.
