749 Galilee earthquake

rdf:langString 749 Galilee earthquake

rdf:langString unknown, reportedly tens of thousands

rdf:langString modern-day Israel, Syria, Palestinian Territories , Jordan and Lebanon

rdf:langString Scythopolis was one of the cities destroyed in the earthquake of 749

rdf:langString yes

rdf:langString The 749 earthquake

rdf:langString 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 parts of Palestine and western Transjordan. 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. 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. In Jewish sources this earthquake is known in Hebrew as רעש שביעית, Ra'ash Shevi'it, lit. "seventh noise", interpreted by scholars to mean The Earthquake of the Sabbatical Year, because the earthquake fell on a sabbatical year, literally "the seventh year" in the Jewish calendar.