Archelais
Ancient town in the Jordan Valley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Archelaïs (Ancient Greek: Ἀρχελαΐς)[1] was a town in the Roman province of Judaea/Palaestina, corresponding to modern Khirbet el-Beiyudat (also spelled Khirbat al-Bayudat). It was founded by Herod the Great's son Archelaus[2] to house workers for his date plantation in the Jericho area.[3] It is represented on the Madaba mosaic map with a towered entrance flanked by two other towers.[4] [failed verification]
Geography
Archelaïs was located about 7.5 miles north of Jericho, on the road leading to Scythopolis.[5]
History
Archelais was founded by Archelaus, son of Herod the Great and ethnarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. Salome bequeathed it to Livia[clarification needed] in her will.[5]
Agrippa I, king of Judaea in the early 40s CE, established a road station at Archelais.[5]
In Christian times, the town became a bishopric. The names of two of its bishops: Timotheus, who took part in two anti-Eutyches synods held in Constantinople in 448 and 449, and Antiochus, who was at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.[6][7]
No longer a residential bishopric, Archelaïs is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[8]
Inscriptions on the floor of a church discovered among the ruins of the town indicate that it was paved with Byzantine mosaics during the 560s.[9][10]
