749 Galilee earthquake
A devastating earthquake known in scientific literature as the Earthquake of 749 struck on January 18, 749, in areas of the Umayyad Caliphate, with the epicenter in Galilee. The most severely affected areas were West and East of the Jordan River. The cities of Tiberias, Beit She'an, Pella, Gadara, and Hippos were largely destroyed while many other cities across the Levant were heavily damaged. The casualties numbered in the tens of thousands.
Scythopolis (Beit She'an) was one of the cities destroyed in the earthquake of 749. | |
Hippos Pella Beit She'an Tiberias | |
| Local date | January 18, 749 |
|---|---|
| Magnitude | 7.0 |
| Epicenter | 32°N 35.5°E |
| Fault | Dead Sea Transform |
| Areas affected | Bilad al-Sham province, Umayyad Caliphate modern-day Israel, Syria, Palestinian Territories (West Bank), Jordan and Lebanon |
| Max. intensity | MMI XI (Extreme) |
| Casualties | unknown, may have exceeded 100,000 |
There are firm reasons to believe that there were either two, or a series of earthquakes between 747 and 749, later conflated for different reasons into one, not least due to the use of different calendars in different sources. It seems probable that the second quake, centered more to the north, which created massive damage mainly in northern Israel and Jordan, did so not so much due to its catastrophic magnitude, but rather as a result of buildings being weakened by the previous, more southerly earthquake.