al-Hamma

The village was situated on a narrow strip of land in the Yarmuk Valley. Steep slopes rose to the north and south. It was one of the stations on the railway line that linked Haifa to the Hijaz railway through Samakh on the southern tip of Lake Tiberias. The area had attracted settlers since ancient times. Al-Hamma was established on the Hellenistic Ammathous, the Old Testament's Ammath (or Emmath). In the Roman period, the site was called Emmatha and belonged to the sub-disctrict of Gadara (Umm Qays), now located in Jordan. Al-Hamma was renovated in A.D. 663, during the reign of the Ummayyad caliph Mu'awiya, after it had been damaged by an earthquake. It was known for its hot springs, which were thought to have therapeutic qualities because of the high sulfur content of their water. Although the springs attracted many visitors in the days of the Greeks and Romans (as evidenced by modern excavation and by references to the springs in historical works), they were later abandoned and were visited only by Bedouin, who set up seasonal camps at the site. A Lebanese entrepreneur, Sulayman Nasif, was given a concession in 1936 (during the British Mandate) to exploit the springs. Afterwards Palestinians and other Arabs flocked to the area for relaxation and therapy.

The people of al-Hamma were predominantly Muslim, and the village had a large mosque with marble columns and a fountain in its front courtyard. Agriculture constituted the main source of livelihood for the villagers; a small portion of the village lands was planted with olive trees, and in 1944/45 a total of 1,105 dunums was irrigated or used for orchards. Archaeological remains in al-Hamma included an amphitheater, baths, a synagogue, burial grounds, the shafts and capitals of columns, and a shrine.