Gadara, an ancient city of Palestine, the capital of Peraea (the country beyond or E. of the Jordan), and one of the ten cities called the Decapolis. It was about 8 m. S. E. of Lake Tiberias, and gave its name to the canton or district known as Gadaritis or the country of the Gadarenes. In Matthew it is called the country of the Gergesenes, but this term, as well as the existence of the city of Gergesa, is supposed to have been invented by Origen in the endeavor to reconcile various readings, as no such city can be traced. Though now wholly in ruins, in the time of Josephus Ga-dara was an important city, strongly fortified, having a court of justice, and in its vicinity several famous hot baths and medicinal springs, reckoned by the Romans inferior only to those of Baia3. Among the remains of Gadara are tombs excavated in limestone rock, consisting of chambers about 20 ft. square, with recesses in the sides. The ruins of Um Keis reveal the splendor of ancient Gadara. It was captured by Vespasian, who reduced it to ashes.

It became later the seat of a bishop, but was abandoned after the Mohammedan conquest.