Thursday, December 12, 2019

Sepphoris or Zippori(Hebrew)....


Our next visit was to drive north of Nazareth  to the ruins of Sepphoris. The village has had numerous influences on it through out history. Jewish, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Arabic and Ottoman influences are seen in the area.  The village is believed to be the site where Mary, the mother of Jesus, had lived.  The Muslims had taken over the whole area until the Crusaders came in and drove them out. As I toured these areas I had to realize that a city through two thousand years or more would be reused or restored enough to make them habitable. At one time  the whole city is then just abandoned and the years of sentiment and physical destruction by enemies made them become ruins.


The first impression of the village was one of a large archaeology  dig. You can see the city on the opposite hill. The village was spread out from this area to a palace on the hill. The dwellings were constructed by stone and the the roof material was a wood supported one.  Also the floors were of wood some times with hallow channels under them to use for drainage. In the temple in Jerusalem the walls were covered with wood so maybe the stone structures also had wood wall attached to the stone. With any ideas that I am imagining I do know that they could destroy a city by setting all of the wood parts of the buildings on fire.


As we approached the area we were able to walk by trees in a garden setting.  This is actually a national park.

The stones are a part of the area and shows the kind of land that they built on in the city. As we walk up the path we are headed to upland to see the remains of a building and palace floors.











Cactus does grow all along the path with large patches in different places. Cactus could have been a part of their menu back then but now it isn't being harvested. Prickly pear looks like the variety.









Ruins are everywhere and in some cases they look like there isn't much left there for them to excavate.


I really don't understand the makeup of the soil as it looks the color of sand but yet is a soil. The hill formation could actually have ruins in it but it hasn't been worked.

Wandering up the trail we come upon a  main palace area ruins of walls and floors. The building was at time half rubble and research says that in 1948 the top half of the building was restored and it had been turned into a school. If it had been reworked that explains why we didn't get to go inside. The whole area was actually castle-like with a surrounding wall.


There is evidence of column on a building that sat infornt of it. The Roman arch over the door shows that the  place could have been first built by the Romans. The fence keeps people from going inside and also the basement area is wired shut to keep people from exploring.




Next to the large building is another part of a building. The back part of it has been built in with wood to help protect what we saw inside of the place.

Walking through the structure are many floor areas of tile mosaics. It must have been a part of the main palace with this grand main room. The roofs over the whole area helps to protect all that is here. It is thought to be 2,500 years old.




The floor was highly decorated showing the everyday life of the early past of the city.  The exact dates I do not know but two thousand five hundred years would be the rough estimate of its time. It may be older. During a time when the Jewish people were driven out of Galilee it is said to be the city in which they established homes. 


I keep enlarging these as they are so amazing to see. We didn't have that much time to look at them so I was glad to get good pictures. They had a walkway in the big room where we could take stairs down to get closer.

A good edging does help to make the composition look good.


She has been nicknamed the Mona Lisa of Sepphoris. It is located on the edge of that main floor. In our times we would see a fireplace at the edge of the room but that is not there. The whole floor is a masterpiece.


Another large section of the floor. After the visit I did find that there was an open air ampitheater just next to the building, built into the hill.




A borrowed photo from a travel brochure shows the open theater below the back of the hill. I again am so amazed at the age of things as I visit Sepphoris/Zippori. My next posting will be the city that is down the hill from this hilltop part of the city.

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