Abila (ruin)

Abila is an important ancient city, the ruins of which are the Pashalik of Gilead, about 8½ mi. north of Irbid and 14½ mi. east of the Sea of Galilee. It was the seat of government during the Tetrarchy of Abilene in Palestine, after the death of Herod the Great. The site is reputed to be the burial place of Abel.

The site is of extreme age, believed to date back 10,000 years to the Neolithic period. It was an important town in the 14th century BC. Later it became part of a league of ten Hellenistic cities on the frontier of the Roman Empire, known as the Decapolis, which existed up until the time of Hadrian. Abila continued to thrive into the Byzantine period as a Christian centre. It experienced a rapid downfall, however, when first it was devastated by a Persian army in 614 AD, soon after to be destroyed by an earthquake in 633. It was briefly inhabited again during the Umayyad period, but another earthquake in 749 ended the town's history.