History of Sabastiya

Sabastiya was founded on a hill in 25 BC by Herold the Great as Sebaste near the ancient city Samaria.

Over the years the city was rebuilded multiple times on the same place. Since the Iron Age the area around the hill was the center of the wine and oil production. Later under the control of King Omri (885-874 BC) a citadel was built on the acropolis. He made this place to his new expanding capital and called it Samaria.

In the eight century the Assyrian Empire took control over the whole region and the city of Samaria was taken by King Sargon II, in the year 722 BC. He rebuilt and repopulated the destroyed city.
After Alexander the Great had conquered the region thousands of Macedonian soldiers settled at Samaria and changed the city to an Hellenistic town. But the Macedonian fortress itself was destroyed by the Maccabaean King John Hyrcanus in 108 BC. And with the fortress the city of Samaria, too.

After the historic battle of Jerusalem in 63 BC, won by the Roman warlord Pompey, the Roman Empire occupied the region. Samaria became a part of the Roman province Syria and was rebuilt again. Thirty-three yreas later the Roman Emperor Augustus assigned the city to Herod the Great, who renamed it to Sebaste to glorify Augustus. Herod initiated several buildings like a the Temple of Augustus, a theater or a stadium. And he builded up a large fortified wall around the city.

After Herods death his son Archelaus assumed control above the Sebaste, until Augustus sent him in AD 6 into exile. Later, Christianity spread out all over the region and it is traditional that the body of John the Baptist had been entombed in Sabastiya.

In the first half of the 7th century Sabastiya was annexed by the Islamic Army under 'Amr ibn al'As. But the Crusaders recovered the city and rebuilt the Byzantinian church above the tomb of John the Baptist.  In 1187 Husam ed-Din Muhammad, Saladin's nephew, conquered the city and turned the Christian cathedral to a mosque. He dedicated it to the Prophet Yahia, the Muslim name for John the Baptist.

Since then many visitors and pilgrams came to see the tomb of John the Baptist - Muslims and Christians.The old city centre was abandoned, but you can still see some parts of the historical buildings.