Phasaelis
PHASAE´LIS (Φασαηλίς, Joseph., Stepl. B., s. v.;Φασηλίς, Ptol. 5.16.7; Phaselis, Plin. Nat. 13.4. s. 19, 21.5. s. 11: Eth. Φασαηλίτης), a town of Palestine built by Herod the Great in the Aulon or Ghor, N. of Jericho, by which means a tract formerly desert was rendered fertile and productive. (Joseph. 16.5.2, 17.11.5, 18.2.2, B. J. 1.21.9.) The name seems still to have existed in the middle ages, for Brocardus, quoted by Robinson, speaks of a village named Phasellum, situated a league N. of Dûk, and corresponding to the position of El-‘Aujeh, where there are ruins. (Robinson, Biblical Researches, vol. 2. p. 305.)
Town N of Jericho, founded by Herod the Great in memory of his elder brother Phasael (Joseph. AJ 16.145). Herod bequeathed the city to his sister Salome (AJ 18.31), who gave it to Livia, the wife of Augustus. The town was famous for its dates (Plin. HN 13.4.44). In the Byzantine period it figured on the Madaba mosaic map. Surveys have revealed a town built on the Hippodamian plan, with streets intersecting at right angles. Remains of some large buildings may be those of a palace and a temple. The city's water came from a distant spring through an aqueduct 10.4 km long.
BIBLIOGRAPHYF. M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine u (1938) 408-9; M. Avi-Yonah, The Holy Land (1966) 100, 164.
A. NEGEV