Beit Ara

Beit Ara بيت أرة Beit Irah, Beit Arrah
Village
Beit Ara
Coordinates: 32°46′46″N 35°49′27″E
Country	Syria
Governorate	Daraa Governorate
District	Daraa District
Nahiyah	Shajara
Population  (2004 census)
• Total	1,878
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

Beit Ara (Arabic: بيت أرة, also transliterated Beit Irah or Beit Arra) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located west of Daraa. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Beit Ara had a population of 1,878 in the 2004 census. It is situated 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) north of the Yarmuk River (border of Syria and Jordan) and 22 kilometers (14 mi) south of Tafas.

History

The German explorer Ulrich Jasper Seetzen passed through the region in 1808–1809 and found ruins in the Hauran at a site called 'Bethirra', which German geographer Carl Ritter suggested was the 'Bethura' fortress constructed by Herod the Great when he ruled Batanea (ancient Hauran) (c. 37–4 BCE. The fortress town later served as a garrison at one point during Byzantine rule (4th–early 7th centuries CE). While Seetzen placed Bethirra southeast of the village of Tasil, American archaeologist Gottlieb Schumacher noted this was an error and identified the site with Beit Ara (southwest of Tasil).

In the 1880s, Beit Ara was described by Schumacher as "a small village on the upper part of the western slopes" of Wadi al-Zayyatin. It had a population of 90 Muslims living in twenty-five houses built of stone and mud. Its immediate vicinity was characterized by extensive ruins of ancient dwellings and some fertile lands.

Bibliography

• Schumacher, Gottlieb (1886). Across the Jordan: Being an Exploration and Survey of part of Hauran and Jaulan. London: Richard Bentley and Son.
• Ma'oz, Zvi Uri (2008). The Ghassānids and the Fall of the Golan Synagogues. Archaostyle.