Diospolis (City of Zeus) according tradition a burial place of St. George (George of Lydda) a soldier in the Roman army, member of the Praetorian Guard for Roman emperor Diocletian (c .244-311). He was sentenced to death for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. The remains of the Byzantine basilica including its apse are incorporated into the mosque. The church crypt contains the sarcophagus of St George. Deacon Theodosius in the guidebook "De terra sanctae - On the Location of the Holy Land" (about 518 AD) noted that the body of St. George is in Diospolis (Lydda). The Great Basilica of Lydda is depicted on a mosaic of Madaba map made in the second half of the 6th century. This basilica was destroyed in 1010.
See:
- Deacon Theodosius, De terra sanctae
- Konrad von Grünenberg: Beschreibung der Reise von Konstanz nach Jerusalem - Cod. St. Peter pap. 32- 73(33r)
- Ben-Zion Rosenfeld, Lod and Its Sages, Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben- Zvi, 1997, pp. 190–91.
