Interesting Places

The Columned Street

Even today you can see parts of the old Columned Street in the olive groves on the south side of the hill. From the west gate to a point at the east end of the city you can have a look at about 800 metres of the street. Some archaeologist believe that this point could be one end of the forum.
Columns and capitals along the street belongs to the second Roman building phase, which was at the end of the second century A.D. According to recent estimates the original street was twelve to fifteen metres wide with a footpath and shops on both sides.

The Church

It refers to the first pilgrams that in place of the church the missing head of John the Baptist was discovered. In the history the Chruch often was destroyed and rebuilt. But in 1187 is was turned to a mosque and dedicated to the Prophet Yahia, the Muslim name for John the Baptist. Nowadays you can still see parts of the church and by a staircase you can climb into the crypt below, where frescoes illustrates the decapitation of John the Baptist and the discovery of his head.

The Temple of Augustus

After the battle of Jerusalem in 63 BC, the Roman occupied the region. Some years later the Roman Emperer Augustus gave the city to Herod the Great. To glorify Augustus Herod built a enormous temple on the top of the hill: The Temple of Augustus. Today the temple is completely destroyed, the present flight of steps belongs to a later period, in which the temple was rebuilt.

The City Wall

The old City Wall of Sabastiya is easy to find. In the southeast of the hill there is still a line of the wall. But in the last centuries many stones were cut of the wall to build houses. At the end of the Columned Street are leavings of an old gate with to towers on the side. Near the gate is a third tower, only fifty metres in the north.

The Forum with the Basilica

The Forum's largeness was about 128 x 72 metres and it was enclosed with roofed paths. Today you can recognize nothing more from the walls of the forum. Only the seven columns at the west side  belong to one of the colonades of the Forum. In the west there was the Basilica, a rectangular building, too. Archaeologist think that some parts the Forum must be of the first phase of the Roman period, other parts of the second centrury AD.

The Theatre

In the area between the Temple of Augustus and the Forum are the last remains of the Theatre. It is safe to say, that the lower rank had about fourteen seating rows and was divided into seven blocks. But it is impossible to say more about the other rankes above, because they where destroyes so much, that you can not detect any detail. The Theatre of the old Sabastiya was a small one, only with a diameter about 65m.