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1,500-Year-Old Synagogue Uncovered In Golan Heights Nature Reserve (Pics) «
A team of Israeli archaeologists has unearthed the remains of a synagogue in the Golan Heights, roughly dating to 1,500 years ago, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the University of Haifa said on Sunday.
The Yehudiya Nature Reserve, known for its streams, canyons, and waterfalls, is named after the Syrian village of Yehudiya, which was inhabited until Israel captured the area from Syria in 1967. The town likely preserved the name of an ancient settlement that might have had a Jewish population.
For decades, Israeli researchers had surveyed the village, which contains several stones and architectural elements from the synagogue incorporated into its houses. However, the synagogue’s exact location remained a mystery.
“The abandoned Syrian village is built on top of ancient remains,” said Dr. Mechael Osband from the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa and the Department of Land of Israel Studies at the Kinneret Academic College. “You’d walk into a house and see a pillar in the middle used as a support for the roof, or a Doric capital underneath an archway.”
Overall, some 150 items from the synagogue have been documented across the ruins of the village, including a stone engraved with a menorah.
