Its grey houses have a neglected, almost a dilapidated appearance, from the friable stone of which they are constructed; and there are no buildings of antiquarian interest or striking architectural beauty, except, perhaps, the ruined citadel and the remnants of the town walls.
The town walls were in the main demolished towards the end of the 19th century.
There are some remains of the old town walls.
Megalithic town walls were naturally common in that stony land, Palestine, and very typical specimens of them were found in the Palestine Exploration Fund's excavations at Bethshemesh (`Ain Shems) directed by Dr. Duncan Mackenzie, 29 whose work also threw new light on the phenomenon of the appearance in Palestine between the 12th and 10th centuries B.C. of subMycenaean (Greek) pottery, which can only be ascribed to the Philistines, whose historical position as a foreign invading force from the Aegean area (Lycia and Crete-Kaphtor) is now entirely vindicated.
Here is a theatre of Roman date and some remains of town walls and other buildings, one with a fine mosaic excavated by the British school at Athens in 1896.
