Susita National Park (Hippos) – Visitors Guide
Susita National Park (Hippos) was a Hellenistic city on a hill of the Golan Heights overlooking the Sea of Galilee.
Map
Susita National Park is located on Golan Heights, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. About two km east of Ein Gev.
Note: the road to Susita National Park is considered dangerous. And despite that, many people visit this place daily. Regardless, according to this press release from May 2022, a new road will be built soon.
Road #7891 passes near this national park and the easiest way to reach it is by entering “Horvat Susita” into Waze or clicking this link.
Directions for drivers: Link to Waze and Link to Google Maps
Directions for public transport: Link to Moovit
Interactive map of the area:
And on the following Sea Of Galilee map, you can see this national park on the right shore. It is marked with a red star near Ein Gev. You can also see other important places.
And here is an areal map of this national park:
Note: you can click on the maps to enlarge them.
Opening Hours
Always open, but visit only during daytime.
Note: according to the following sign, it is prohibited to remain in the national park after dark.
Entrance Fee
Free.
Parking
There is a small dirt parking near the beginning of the trail to Susita. In the next photo, you can see road #7891 and the parking from the top of the hill.
National Park
Update: on March 2023, this place was opened as an organized national park. Here is a video with additional details:
What does Sussita / Hippos mean?
Hippos and Sussita mean the same thing, just in different languages. Hippos (Greek) and Sussita (Aramaic) mean horse. But we do not know why the city received its name. One theory I found mentions the form of the ridge and its resemblance to a saddle. Another site mentioned that the ridge’s form resembles a horse’s head and neck. Both theories are similar to the way that nearby Gamla received its name.
Founded as a polis by the name Antioch of Hippos during the Seleucids, the city is named after the Greek word for horse, Hippos, and a common name of Seleucid monarchs, Antiochus. In the 3rd-century Mosaic of Rehob, the site is known by its Aramaic name, Sussita, a word meaning “horse” in the feminine gender, while the Arabic name, Qal‘at al-Ḥiṣn or Qal‘at al-Ḥuṣn, has been used by the country’s Arab inhabitants, meaning, “Fortress of the Horse/Stallion”. Other names include the alternate spelling Hippus, a Latinized version of the Greek name. The precise reason why the city received this name is unknown.
Source: Wikipedia
The Hike to Susita
Before we start our visit, here is a brief background about this place:
The city of Hippos, also known well as Susita, was founded on this hill overlooking the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee during the Hellenistic period in the second century BCE. The first residents of the city were pagans who later converted to Christianity. At their side lived a small Jewish community as well. Most of the ruins visible today date to the Roman and Byzantine periods (first-century BCE-seventh century CE). They include a city gate, a main colonnaded street, a defense wall with fortified towers, a sophisticated water supply system, the main square (the Forum), a reservoir, a sanctuary, churches, a baptistery, and more. The city was apparently destroyed by an earthquake in 749 CE and was never resettled.
During Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, members of Kibbutz En Gev, located at the foot of the hill, took control of Susita. It was a front-line military command post until the Six-Day War in 1967.
Source: sign
At the parking lot, you can see a sign with a black trail marking that leads you to the city.
The trail goes uphill and is not long.
On Golan Heights, there is a danger of mines. Thus you should walk only on the marked trail.
Several cemeteries have been discovered around Hippos. Maybe it was one of them (since it was behind the gate, we could not get closer).
Decapolis
Decapolis literary means ten cities. And it was a group of ten Hellenistic towns on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire.
They formed a group because of their language, culture, religion, location, and political status, with each functioning as an autonomous city-state dependent on Rome. They are sometimes described as a league of cities, although some scholars believe they were never formally organized as a political unit.
The Decapolis was a center of Hellenistic and Roman culture in a region otherwise populated by Jews, Nabataeans, and Arameans. In the time of Emperor Trajan, the cities were incorporated into the provinces of Syria and Arabia Petraea; several cities were later placed in Syria, Palaestina and Palaestina Secunda. Most of the Decapolis region is located in modern-day Jordan, except Hippos and Scythopolis (in Israel) and Damascus (in Syria).