The Seventh Earthquake

749 CE.

Shown on the map at 32.000°, 35.500°.

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. 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 modern-day 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.

Text from the Wikipedia article 749 Galilee earthquake, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Everything else in 749 CE

HistoryLayer draws the world as it was in any year from 123,000 BCE to 2026. Move the slider and the borders redraw for that year; the map carries 23,890 events, 12,790 people, 837 wars and 13,183 cities, each one readable in place. Signing in is optional and lets you keep what you find.

HistoryLayer
1914CE
World Wars
123,000 BCE2026 CE
54 stops — one per surviving map on file, evenly spaced drag the pin · ←→ steps one stop the same 54 stops by true elapsed time ↑
Map & filters
Show on the map
Filter
Colour by
Polity Empire