Arguably the most important bath in the Holy Land, and one of the largest spas in the Roman world, is Hammat-Gader, near the Sea of Galilee. The emperor Caracalla came here (in addition to Hammei-Tiberias), as did Hadrian (117–138 A.D.), who had dermatological problems.

The Greek biographer Eunapius (fourth century A.D.) wrote that the baths of Hammat-Gader “are second only to those at Baiae [in the Bay of Naples] with which no other baths can be compared throughout the Roman world.” Eunapius tells us that even people from Athens flocked to Hammat-Gader in search of a cure.

The Roman-period bath is a monumental structure. Roughly rectangular, it occupied an area of nearly 54,000 square feet. The excavators, Yizhar Hirschfeld and Giora Solar, who uncovered the well-preserved bathhouse buildings, found it magnificently built, with a branched network of channels, pipes and tunnels that conducted the mineral and fresh water, and drained the pools. They gave the various rooms in the building names like the Hall of the Fountains, the Hall of the Inscriptions and the Hall of the Pillars.Each contains a large pool connected with the others. The water emerges at a temperature of 125F from the hottest spring in the southwestern part of the thermal complex.

Read the rest of Healing Waters: The Social World of Hot Springs in Roman Palestine in the online Biblical Archaeology Society library.

See also:

• BibleWalks.com
• Hammat Gader Synagogue, 450 CE