Samaria, << suh MAR ee uh, >> was the name of a city and its surrounding region in ancient Canaan. Canaan was roughly an area that extended from east of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. King Omri built Samaria in about 800 B.C. He made it the capital of the kingdom of Israel and named it after Shemer, who owned the land where it was built.
Assyria conquered Samaria in 721 or 722 B.C., after a siege of three years. In 331 B.C., the city fell to Alexander the Great. The kingdom of Judah attacked and destroyed the city in 128 B.C. It was later rebuilt by Herod the Great, who called it Sebaste. Excavations begun in 1909 have yielded many ancient treasures. According to tradition, Saint John the Baptist is buried in Samaria. Remains of the Crusaders’ church, built in the 1100’s, have also been found. The site of Samaria is in the West Bank region of Southwest Asia.
