Al-Majdal, Tiberias
Encyclopedia
Al-Majdal was a Palestinian Arab
village located on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee
(200 metres (656.2 ft) above sea level), 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Tiberias and south of Khan Minyeh. It is identified with the site of the ancient town of Magdala
, reputed to be the birthplace of Mary Magdalene
. Josephus
recounts military battles there between his forces and those of Vespasian
's army, and archaeological excavations indicate it was an important city on the Sea of Galilee around the time of the rule of Herod Antipas
.
Christian
pilgrim
s wrote of their visits to see the house and church of Mary Magdalene from the 6th century onward, but little is known about the village in the Mamluk
and early Ottoman
period, indicating it was likely small or uninhabited. In the 19th century, Western travellers interested in the biblical History of ancient Israel and Judah
documented their observations of Al-Majdal, generally describing it as a very small and poor Muslim
village. In 1910-11, Russia
n Zionists founded Migdal adjacent to Al-Majdal. Just prior to the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
, Al-Majdal was depopulated and then largely destroyed. The Israel
i town of Migdal has since expanded onto part of the village's former lands.
name Majdal means "tower" and preserves the ancient place name Magdala. Magdala was also known in ancient times as Migdal (Hebrew
), and the Aramaic
names ascribed to it are Magdala Nunaya (also, Migdal Nunnaya or Nunayah; "Tower of Fish") and Magdala Tza'baya (or Migdal Seb'iya; "Magdala of the dyers" or "Tower of Dyers"). It is referred to by these Aramaic names in the Babylonian Talmud (b. Pesah. 46b) and Jerusalem Talmud
(y. Ta'an. 4.8.) respectively. Also known in Greek
as Magdala Taricheae ("Magdala of the fish salters"), likely due to the town's famed fish-curing industry, Josephus
writes of it simply as Taricheae (Ant. 14.20; 20. 159; J.W. 1. 180; 2. 252). The Magadan
mentioned in Matthew 15:39 and the Dalmanutha
of Mark 8
:10 are likely corrupt forms of Magdal (Magdala) and Magdal Nuna (Magdala Nunaya).
Mary Magdalene's surname as transcribed in the gospels is said to be derived from Magdala as her home and place of birth. Alfred Edersheim
cites the Talmud
as evidence for this naming practice, which describes several Rabbis as 'Magdalene' or residents of Magdala.
Majdal and Majdalani ("of Majdal") are common place names and family names in the Syria
n, Israel
i and the West Bank
Arab populations. Examples of such place names include Majdal
(Askalan
), Majdal Yaba
, and Al-Mujaydil
(depopulated Palestinian villages located in modern day Israel), Majdal Shams
(a Syrian-Druze
village in the Golan Heights), Majdal Bani Fadil
(in the West Bank
) and Majdal Anjar
(in modern day Lebanon
).
writes in the 1st century CE of a Roman road
that connected Magdala (Taricheae) on the Sea of Galilee
to Akka
(then Ptolemais), passing through Cana
. In his extensive accounts of the military history of Taricheae, he relates that Cassius
, the governor of Syria
between 53 and 51 BCE, attacked the city and took 30,000 men into slavery. During the time Josephus was the head of the Galilean revolutionaries' army (66 - c. 70 CE), he tells of fortifying the city which served as his headquarters and counting 40,000 men from within it among his supporters.
Josephus also recounts imprisoning 600 members of the Roman council at Tiberias in Taricheae which served as a Zealot stronghold until it fell to Romans in 67 CE. Also recorded are the deaths of 6,700 Jews
in the battle with Vespasian
's army in 67 CE, and the fate of 1,200 more who had surrendered, and were then led out to the stadium in Tiberias where they were executed. Another 6,000 youths were sent away to Nero
and 30,400 were sold into slavery, save those who were given as a present to Agrippa. Included in the territory of Agrippa II
by Nero
, following his death, it was attached to the Roman province of Judaea
.
Gustav Dalman writes of Magdala that, "it was the most important city on the western bank of the lake, contributing a wagon-load of taxes [...] until Herod Antipas
raised up a rival on the lake by building Tiberias." Magdala is also described as "the capital of a toparchy," and is compared to Sepphoris and Tiberias in that it had "administrative apparatus and personnel," though not to the same extent.
Recognition of Magdala as the birthplace of Mary Magdalene
appears in texts dating back to the 6th century CE. In the 8th and 10th centuries CE, Christian
sources write of a church in the village that was also Mary Magdalene's house, where Jesus
is said to have exorcised her of demons. The anonymously penned Life of Constantine attributes the building of the church to St Helena in the 4th century CE, at the location where she found Mary Magdalene's house. Christian pilgrims
to Palestine
in the 12th century mention the location of Magdala, but fail to mention the presence of any church.
Under the rule of the Mamluks in the 13th century, sources indicate that the church was not destroyed, but was transformed into a stable. In 1283, Burchard of Mount Sion
records having entered the house of Mary Magdalene in the village, and about ten years later, Ricoldus of Montecroce notes his joy at having found the church and house still standing. Francesco Quaresmi writes of al-Majdal in 1626 that "certain people have claimed that her house is to be seen there;" however, Denys Pringle writes that by this time the site was in ruins. Part of the site was acquired by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land sometime after 1935.
The small Muslim
Arab
village of Al-Majdal was located to the south of the land acquired by the Franciscans. Little is known about the village in the medieval or early Ottoman period
, presumably because it was either small or uninhabited. Fellahin from Egypt
are said to have settled in the village some time in the 19th century.
In the early 19th century, foreign travellers interested in the Christian traditions associated with the site visited the village. In 1807 U. Seetzen
stayed overnight in "the little Mahommedan village of Majdil, situated on the bank of the lake." The English
traveler James Silk Buckingham
observed in 1816 that a few Muslim families resided there, and in 1821, the Swiss
traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
notes that the village was in a rather poor condition. Edward Robinson
also writes of Al-Majdal during his travels through Syria
and Palestine in 1838. Transcribing its name as el-Mejdel, he describes it as "a miserable little Muslim village, looking much like a ruin, though exhibiting no marks of antiquity." Robinson was nevertheless aware of the village's ancient associations:
In his account of a United States
expedition to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea
in 1849, William Francis Lynch writes of Mejdel that it is, "a poor village of about 40 families, all fellahin," living in houses of stone with mud roofs, similar to those in Tur'an
. Arriving at Al-Majdal by boat a few years later, Bayard Taylor
describes the view from path winding up from shoreline, "[...] through oleander
s, nebbuks, patches of hollyhock
, anise
-seed, fennel
, and other spicy plants, while on the west, great fields of barley
stand ripe for the cutting. In some places, the Fellahs, men and women, were at work, reaping and binding the sheaves."
Isabel Burton
is perhaps the only 19th century traveller to mention the shrine for Mohammed Al-Ajami, while imparting other details on life in Al-Majdal. In her private journals published in 1879, she writes, "First we came to Magdala (Mejdel) ... There is a tomb here of a Shaykh (El Ajami), the name implies a Persian Santon; there is a tomb seen on a mountain, said to be that of Dinah
, Jacob
's daughter. Small boys were running in Nature's garb on the beach, which is white, sandy, pebbly, and full of small shells." A survey undertaken by the Palestine Exploration Fund
in 1881, describes al-Majdal as a stone-built village, situated on a partially arable plain, with an estimated population of about 80. Bellarmino Bagatti
and another Franciscan friar who visited the village in 1935 were hosted by the Mukhtar
Mutlaq, whose nine wives and descendants are said to have made up almost the whole of the population of the village at the time.
In modern times, Al-Majdal had a rectangular layout, with most of the houses crowded together, though a few to the north along the lakeshore were spaced further apart. Built of stone, cement, and mud, some had roofs of wood and cane covered with a layer of mud. The smallest village in the district of Tiberias in terms of land area, its inhabitants, all of whom were Muslim, maintained a shrine for one Mohammad al-Ajami on the northern outskirts of the village. To the west of the village on the summit of the mountains, lay the remains of the Crusader
fortress of Magdala (later known as Qal'at Na'la ("the fortress of Na'la"). On the lakeshore about 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) south of the village, there was a perforated black stone that is mentioned by Arab travellers in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Local belief held that the holes in the rock were caused by ants having eaten through it, and for this reason it was called hajar al-namla, "the ant´s stone."
The village economy was based on agriculture, vegetables and grain were the most important agricultural products. In 1944-45, cultivated lands in the village included 24 dunam
s used for growing citrus
and bananas, and 41 dunums devoted to cereal
s. Another 17 dunams were irrigated or used for orchards.
writes that the inhabitants of Al-Majdal were 'persuaded by the headmen of [neighbouring Jewish] Migdal and Ginosar
' to evacuate their homes; the villagers were paid P£ 200 for eight rifles, ammunition and a bus they handed over. They were then transported to the Jordanian border in Jewish buses. Al-Majdal was subsequently bulldozed by the Israelis in 1948.
The Jewish settlement of Migdal was established in 1910-1911 on land purchased by Russian Zionists
, 1.5 kilometre (0.93205910497471 mi) northwest of the village of Al-Majdal. After 1948, Migdal expanded to include some of the village land of Al-Majdal.
Walid Khalidi
, the Palestinian historian describes the village remains in 1992: "The site is dotted with rubble, Christ's-thorn, and a few palm
and olive
trees. The only remaining village landmark is the neglected shrine of Muhammad al-'Ajami, a low, square, stone structure topped by a formerly whitewashed dome. The land in the vicinity is cultivated by Israelis."
Petersen examined the shrine of Muhammad al-Ajami in 1991, and described it as a small square building with a shallow dome
supported by squinch
es. The entrance was on the north side, where there also was a small window. The shrine appeared to contain two tomb
s, one about 1 metres (3.3 ft) high, while the other marked only by a low kerb
of stones. The larger tomb was covered with purple and green cloth.
From her visits there in the 1980s and 1990s, Jane Schaeberg also describes the site, noting it is marked by a rusty road sign indicating that, "this was the birthplace of Mary Magdelene, a city that flourished toward the end of the second temple period, and one of the cities fortified by Joseph ben Matityahu (Josephus) during the great revolt of the Jews against the Romans." She also writes that the site is cordoned off by an inner stone wall topped with chain link and barbed wire and an outer barbed wire fence, and still contains the Islamic dome structure and an old stone house. Weeds have grown over where excavations were carried out in the 1970s, which were suspended because of the problem posed by water from underground springs. An Arab
family living in a corrugated shack serve as caretakers for the part of the site owned by the Franciscans, the Greek Orthodox Church owns another small piece of land, while the Jewish National Fund
(JNF) owns the remainder.
and a stone inscribed with a cross and the date 1389 were found near Birqat Sitti Miriam (Arabic: "The Pool of Our Lady Mary") on the Franciscan-owned grounds.
Between 1971 and 1976, excavations also discovered the remains of what is thought to have been a Byzantine
era monastery
near the sea. The excavations were hindered by the water from underground springs, as well as the destruction wrought by the bulldozing of the Arab village which pushed many ancient artifacts towards the sea. The mosaic of the Byzantine monastery was badly damaged, though part of the geometric and cross design of red, white, blue and ash coloured stones could still be seen. A Roman era paved road dating to the 1st century CE was also uncovered and identified. To the east of it, a building encompassing 60 metres (196.9 ft) of closed space was revealed that is thought to be either a 1st century CE mini-synagogue
or nymphaeum
. Other findings include a tower, aqueduct
, and large paved court enclosed by colonnades
to the south, and to the north, a large urban villa. The villa was in use between the 1st century CE and the Byzantine era; a Greek inscription at the doorstep reading kai su ("and you" or "you too") is the only one of its kind to be found in Israel, though similar inscriptions have been found in private homes excavated in Antioch
.
Other artifacts discovered in the excavations of the 1970s include a needle and lead weights for repairing and holding down fishing nets, and numerous coins. Many of the coins dated to the time of the first Jewish revolt against Rome (66 - 70 CE), four to the 3rd century CE, and in the top layer, one dated to the time of Constantine
. Another cache of coins found there contained 74 from Tyre, 15 from Ptolemais
, 17 from Gadara, 14 from Scythopolis, 10 from Tiberias, 9 from Hippos
, 8 from Sepphoris and 2 from Gaba.
In 1991, during a period of severe drought, the waters of the Sea of Galilee receded and the remains of a tower with a base made of basalt
pillars was revealed about 150 feet (45.7 m) from the shoreline. Archaeologists believe it served as a lighthouse for fishermen. It has since been submerged by the waters once again.
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
village located on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee
Sea of Galilee
The Sea of Galilee, also Kinneret, Lake of Gennesaret, or Lake Tiberias , is the largest freshwater lake in Israel, and it is approximately in circumference, about long, and wide. The lake has a total area of , and a maximum depth of approximately 43 m...
(200 metres (656.2 ft) above sea level), 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Tiberias and south of Khan Minyeh. It is identified with the site of the ancient town of Magdala
Magdala
Magdala is the name of at least two places in ancient Israel mentioned in the Jewish Talmud and one place that may be mentioned in the Christian New Testament...
, reputed to be the birthplace of Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
. Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
recounts military battles there between his forces and those of Vespasian
Vespasian
Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
's army, and archaeological excavations indicate it was an important city on the Sea of Galilee around the time of the rule of Herod Antipas
Herod Antipas
Herod Antipater , known by the nickname Antipas, was a 1st-century AD ruler of Galilee and Perea, who bore the title of tetrarch...
.
Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
pilgrim
Pilgrim
A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journeying to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system...
s wrote of their visits to see the house and church of Mary Magdalene from the 6th century onward, but little is known about the village in the Mamluk
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
and early Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
period, indicating it was likely small or uninhabited. In the 19th century, Western travellers interested in the biblical History of ancient Israel and Judah
History of ancient Israel and Judah
Israel and Judah were related Iron Age kingdoms of ancient Palestine. The earliest known reference to the name Israel in archaeological records is in the Merneptah stele, an Egyptian record of c. 1209 BCE. By the 9th century BCE the Kingdom of Israel had emerged as an important local power before...
documented their observations of Al-Majdal, generally describing it as a very small and poor Muslim
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
village. In 1910-11, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Zionists founded Migdal adjacent to Al-Majdal. Just prior to the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
, Al-Majdal was depopulated and then largely destroyed. The Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i town of Migdal has since expanded onto part of the village's former lands.
Etymology
The ArabicArabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
name Majdal means "tower" and preserves the ancient place name Magdala. Magdala was also known in ancient times as Migdal (Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
), and the Aramaic
Aramaic language
Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...
names ascribed to it are Magdala Nunaya (also, Migdal Nunnaya or Nunayah; "Tower of Fish") and Magdala Tza'baya (or Migdal Seb'iya; "Magdala of the dyers" or "Tower of Dyers"). It is referred to by these Aramaic names in the Babylonian Talmud (b. Pesah. 46b) and Jerusalem Talmud
Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud, talmud meaning "instruction", "learning", , is a collection of Rabbinic notes on the 2nd-century Mishnah which was compiled in the Land of Israel during the 4th-5th century. The voluminous text is also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud de-Eretz Yisrael...
(y. Ta'an. 4.8.) respectively. Also known in Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
as Magdala Taricheae ("Magdala of the fish salters"), likely due to the town's famed fish-curing industry, Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
writes of it simply as Taricheae (Ant. 14.20; 20. 159; J.W. 1. 180; 2. 252). The Magadan
Magadan
Magadan is a port town on the Sea of Okhotsk and gateway to the Kolyma region. It is the administrative center of Magadan Oblast , in the Russian Far East. Founded in 1929 on the site of an earlier settlement from the 1920s, it was granted the status of town in 1939...
mentioned in Matthew 15:39 and the Dalmanutha
Dalmanutha
Dalmanutha is the unknown destination of Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Gallilee after he fed the four thousand, as recorded in Mark's gospel,...
of Mark 8
Mark 8
Mark 8 is the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It contains two miracles of Jesus, Peter's confession that he believes Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus' first prediction of his own death and resurrection...
:10 are likely corrupt forms of Magdal (Magdala) and Magdal Nuna (Magdala Nunaya).
Mary Magdalene's surname as transcribed in the gospels is said to be derived from Magdala as her home and place of birth. Alfred Edersheim
Alfred Edersheim
Alfred Edersheim was a Jewish convert to Christianity and a Biblical scholar known especially for his book The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah .- Early life and education :...
cites the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
as evidence for this naming practice, which describes several Rabbis as 'Magdalene' or residents of Magdala.
Majdal and Majdalani ("of Majdal") are common place names and family names in the Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i and the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
Arab populations. Examples of such place names include Majdal
Majdal
Majdal is a common place name in Syria and Palestine and can refer to:* Al-Majdal, Askalan, a village depopulated in 1948, now part of Ashkelon in Israel...
(Askalan
Ashkelon
Ashkelon is a coastal city in the South District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The ancient seaport of Ashkelon dates back to the Neolithic Age...
), Majdal Yaba
Majdal Yaba
Majdal Yaba was a Palestinian Arab village located northeast of Ramla and east of Jaffa. A walled city stood at the same site as early as 3000 BCE, and Majdal Yaba is first mentioned by the name Aphek in Egyptian Execration texts dating to the 19th century BCE...
, and Al-Mujaydil
Al-Mujaydil
Al-Mujaydil was a former Palestinian village located 6 km southwest of Nazareth. Al-Mujaydil was one of a few towns that achieved local council status by the British Mandate of Palestine government. In 1945, the village had a population of 1,900 and total land area of 18,836 dunams - mostly...
(depopulated Palestinian villages located in modern day Israel), Majdal Shams
Majdal Shams
Majdal Shams is a Druze village in the northern part of the Golan Heights, in the southern foothills of Mt. Hermon. Since the June 1967 Six-Day War, the village has been controlled by Israel, first under martial law, but since 1981 under Israeli civil law, and incorporated into the Israeli...
(a Syrian-Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...
village in the Golan Heights), Majdal Bani Fadil
Majdal Bani Fadil
Majdal Bani Fadil is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 14 kilometers Southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics , the town had a population of 2,184 inhabitants in mid-year 2006....
(in the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
) and Majdal Anjar
Majdal Anjar
Majdal Anjar is a village of Beqaa Governorate, Lebanon. Majdal Anjar is an overwhelmingly Sunni town.-Geography:...
(in modern day Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
).
History
JosephusJosephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
writes in the 1st century CE of a Roman road
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
that connected Magdala (Taricheae) on the Sea of Galilee
Sea of Galilee
The Sea of Galilee, also Kinneret, Lake of Gennesaret, or Lake Tiberias , is the largest freshwater lake in Israel, and it is approximately in circumference, about long, and wide. The lake has a total area of , and a maximum depth of approximately 43 m...
to Akka
Acre, Israel
Acre , is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country....
(then Ptolemais), passing through Cana
Cana
In the Christian New Testament, the Gospel of John refers a number of times to a town called Cana of Galilee.-The marriage at Cana:Among Christians and other students of the New Testament, Cana is best known as the place where, according to the Fourth Gospel, Jesus performed his first public...
. In his extensive accounts of the military history of Taricheae, he relates that Cassius
Gaius Cassius Longinus
Gaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman senator, a leading instigator of the plot to kill Julius Caesar, and the brother in-law of Marcus Junius Brutus.-Early life:...
, the governor of Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
between 53 and 51 BCE, attacked the city and took 30,000 men into slavery. During the time Josephus was the head of the Galilean revolutionaries' army (66 - c. 70 CE), he tells of fortifying the city which served as his headquarters and counting 40,000 men from within it among his supporters.
Josephus also recounts imprisoning 600 members of the Roman council at Tiberias in Taricheae which served as a Zealot stronghold until it fell to Romans in 67 CE. Also recorded are the deaths of 6,700 Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
in the battle with Vespasian
Vespasian
Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
's army in 67 CE, and the fate of 1,200 more who had surrendered, and were then led out to the stadium in Tiberias where they were executed. Another 6,000 youths were sent away to Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
and 30,400 were sold into slavery, save those who were given as a present to Agrippa. Included in the territory of Agrippa II
Agrippa II
Agrippa II , son of Agrippa I, and like him originally named Marcus Julius Agrippa, was the seventh and last king of the family of Herod the Great, thus last of the Herodians. He was the brother of Berenice, Mariamne, and Drusilla...
by Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
, following his death, it was attached to the Roman province of Judaea
Iudaea Province
Judaea or Iudaea are terms used by historians to refer to the Roman province that extended over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of Israel...
.
Gustav Dalman writes of Magdala that, "it was the most important city on the western bank of the lake, contributing a wagon-load of taxes [...] until Herod Antipas
Herod Antipas
Herod Antipater , known by the nickname Antipas, was a 1st-century AD ruler of Galilee and Perea, who bore the title of tetrarch...
raised up a rival on the lake by building Tiberias." Magdala is also described as "the capital of a toparchy," and is compared to Sepphoris and Tiberias in that it had "administrative apparatus and personnel," though not to the same extent.
Recognition of Magdala as the birthplace of Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
appears in texts dating back to the 6th century CE. In the 8th and 10th centuries CE, Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
sources write of a church in the village that was also Mary Magdalene's house, where Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
is said to have exorcised her of demons. The anonymously penned Life of Constantine attributes the building of the church to St Helena in the 4th century CE, at the location where she found Mary Magdalene's house. Christian pilgrims
Pilgrims
Pilgrims , or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States...
to Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
in the 12th century mention the location of Magdala, but fail to mention the presence of any church.
Under the rule of the Mamluks in the 13th century, sources indicate that the church was not destroyed, but was transformed into a stable. In 1283, Burchard of Mount Sion
Burchard of Mount Sion
Burchard of Mount Sion, or Burchard de Mont Sion, also wrongly called Brocard or Bocard, was a German Dominican who travelled to the Middle East at the end of the 13th century....
records having entered the house of Mary Magdalene in the village, and about ten years later, Ricoldus of Montecroce notes his joy at having found the church and house still standing. Francesco Quaresmi writes of al-Majdal in 1626 that "certain people have claimed that her house is to be seen there;" however, Denys Pringle writes that by this time the site was in ruins. Part of the site was acquired by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land sometime after 1935.
The small Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
village of Al-Majdal was located to the south of the land acquired by the Franciscans. Little is known about the village in the medieval or early Ottoman period
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, presumably because it was either small or uninhabited. Fellahin from Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
are said to have settled in the village some time in the 19th century.
In the early 19th century, foreign travellers interested in the Christian traditions associated with the site visited the village. In 1807 U. Seetzen
Ulrich Jasper Seetzen
Ulrich Jasper Seetzen was a German explorer of Arabia and Palestine from Jever, German Frisia.His father sent him to the university of Göttingen, where he graduated in medicine...
stayed overnight in "the little Mahommedan village of Majdil, situated on the bank of the lake." The English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
traveler James Silk Buckingham
James Silk Buckingham
James Silk Buckingham was an English author, journalist and traveller.He was born at Flushing near Falmouth, the son of a farmer, and had a limited education. His youth was spent at sea, and in 1797 he was captured by the French and held as a prisoner of war at Corunna...
observed in 1816 that a few Muslim families resided there, and in 1821, the Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt was a Swiss traveller and orientalist. He wrote his letters in French and signed Louis...
notes that the village was in a rather poor condition. Edward Robinson
Edward Robinson (scholar)
Edward Robinson was an American biblical scholar, known as the “Father of Biblical Geography.” He has been referred to as the “founder of modern Palestinology.” -Biography:...
also writes of Al-Majdal during his travels through Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Palestine in 1838. Transcribing its name as el-Mejdel, he describes it as "a miserable little Muslim village, looking much like a ruin, though exhibiting no marks of antiquity." Robinson was nevertheless aware of the village's ancient associations:
"The name Mejdel, is obviously the same with the HebrewHebrew languageHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
Migdal and GreekGreek languageGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
Magdala; there is little reason to doubt that this place is the Magdala of the New TestamentNew TestamentThe New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, chiefly known as the native town of Mary Magdalene. The ancient notices respecting its position are exceedingly indefinite; yet it seems to follow from the New Testament itself, that it lay on the west side of the lake. After the miraculous feeding of four thousand, which appears to have taken place in the country east of the lake, Jesus 'took ship and came into the coast of Magdala;' for which Mark the EvangelistMark the EvangelistMark the Evangelist is the traditional author of the Gospel of Mark. He is one of the Seventy Disciples of Christ, and the founder of the Church of Alexandria, one of the original four main sees of Christianity....
writes DalmanuthaDalmanuthaDalmanutha is the unknown destination of Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Gallilee after he fed the four thousand, as recorded in Mark's gospel,...
. Here, the PhariseesPhariseesThe Pharisees were at various times a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews during the Second Temple period beginning under the Hasmonean dynasty in the wake of...
began to question him, but he 'left them, and entering into the ship again, departed to the other side [...] This view is further confirmed by the testimony of the RabbiRabbiIn Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
ns in the Jerusalem Talmud, compiled at Tiberias; who several times speak of Magdala as adjacent to Tiberias and Hammath or the hot springs. The Migdal-el of the Old TestamentOld TestamentThe Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
in the tribe of NaphtaliNaphtaliAccording to the Book of Genesis, Naphtali was the second son of Jacob with Bilhah. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Naphtali. However, some Biblical scholars view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the...
was probably the same place."
In his account of a United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
expedition to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...
in 1849, William Francis Lynch writes of Mejdel that it is, "a poor village of about 40 families, all fellahin," living in houses of stone with mud roofs, similar to those in Tur'an
Tur'an
Tur'an is an Israeli-Arab local council in the North District of Israel. It is located on Mount Tur'an near the main road from Haifa to Tiberias, and about north of Nazareth...
. Arriving at Al-Majdal by boat a few years later, Bayard Taylor
Bayard Taylor
Bayard Taylor was an American poet, literary critic, translator, and travel author.-Life and work:...
describes the view from path winding up from shoreline, "[...] through oleander
Oleander
Nerium oleander is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the dogbane family Apocynaceae, toxic in all its parts. It is the only species currently classified in the genus Nerium. It is most commonly known as oleander, from its superficial resemblance to the unrelated olive Olea, but has many other...
s, nebbuks, patches of hollyhock
Hollyhock
Alcea , commonly known as hollyhocks, is a genus of about 60 species of flowering plants in the mallow family Malvaceae. Most species are native to southwest and central Asia, although a few are native to southeast Europe or Egypt...
, anise
Anise
Anise , Pimpinella anisum, also called aniseed, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia. Its flavor resembles that of liquorice, fennel, and tarragon.- Biology :...
-seed, fennel
Fennel
Fennel is a plant species in the genus Foeniculum . It is a member of the family Apiaceae . It is a hardy, perennial, umbelliferous herb, with yellow flowers and feathery leaves...
, and other spicy plants, while on the west, great fields of barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
stand ripe for the cutting. In some places, the Fellahs, men and women, were at work, reaping and binding the sheaves."
Isabel Burton
Isabel Burton
Isabel Burton was the wife and partner of explorer, adventurer, and writer Sir Richard Francis Burton....
is perhaps the only 19th century traveller to mention the shrine for Mohammed Al-Ajami, while imparting other details on life in Al-Majdal. In her private journals published in 1879, she writes, "First we came to Magdala (Mejdel) ... There is a tomb here of a Shaykh (El Ajami), the name implies a Persian Santon; there is a tomb seen on a mountain, said to be that of Dinah
Dinah
According to the Hebrew Bible, Dinah was the daughter of Jacob, one of the patriarchs of the Israelites and Leah, his first wife. The episode of her abduction and violation by a Canaanite prince, and the subsequent vengeance of her brothers Simeon and Levi, commonly referred to as "The Rape of...
, Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...
's daughter. Small boys were running in Nature's garb on the beach, which is white, sandy, pebbly, and full of small shells." A survey undertaken by the Palestine Exploration Fund
Palestine Exploration Fund
The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society often simply known as the PEF. It was founded in 1865 and is still functioning today. Its initial object was to carry out surveys of the topography and ethnography of Ottoman Palestine with a remit that fell somewhere between an expeditionary...
in 1881, describes al-Majdal as a stone-built village, situated on a partially arable plain, with an estimated population of about 80. Bellarmino Bagatti
Bellarmino Bagatti
Bellarmino Camillo Bagatti was a controversial 20th century archaeologist and ordained priest .Among his writings was the book Excavations in Nazareth. Vol. II. From the 12th century until Today....
and another Franciscan friar who visited the village in 1935 were hosted by the Mukhtar
Mukhtar
Mukhtar meaning "chosen" in Arabic, refers to the head of a village or mahalle in many Arab countries as well as in Turkey and Cyprus. The name refers to the fact that mukhtars are usually selected by some consensual or participatory method, often involving an election. Mukhtar is also a common...
Mutlaq, whose nine wives and descendants are said to have made up almost the whole of the population of the village at the time.
In modern times, Al-Majdal had a rectangular layout, with most of the houses crowded together, though a few to the north along the lakeshore were spaced further apart. Built of stone, cement, and mud, some had roofs of wood and cane covered with a layer of mud. The smallest village in the district of Tiberias in terms of land area, its inhabitants, all of whom were Muslim, maintained a shrine for one Mohammad al-Ajami on the northern outskirts of the village. To the west of the village on the summit of the mountains, lay the remains of the Crusader
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
fortress of Magdala (later known as Qal'at Na'la ("the fortress of Na'la"). On the lakeshore about 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) south of the village, there was a perforated black stone that is mentioned by Arab travellers in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Local belief held that the holes in the rock were caused by ants having eaten through it, and for this reason it was called hajar al-namla, "the ant´s stone."
The village economy was based on agriculture, vegetables and grain were the most important agricultural products. In 1944-45, cultivated lands in the village included 24 dunam
Dunam
A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum, dynym, dulum was a non-SI unit of land area used in the Ottoman Empire and representing the amount of land that can be plowed in a day; its value varied from 900–2500 m²...
s used for growing citrus
Citrus
Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...
and bananas, and 41 dunums devoted to cereal
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
s. Another 17 dunams were irrigated or used for orchards.
1948, and aftermath
After the fall of Arab Tiberias to Jewish forces and the evacuation of its inhabitants, the Arab villages surrounding it were also depopulated, including Al-Majdal. Benny MorrisBenny Morris
Benny Morris is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel...
writes that the inhabitants of Al-Majdal were 'persuaded by the headmen of [neighbouring Jewish] Migdal and Ginosar
Ginosar
Ginosar , , is a kibbutz on the western banks of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. Located north of Tiberias on Highway 90, it falls under the jurisdiction of Emek HaYarden Regional Council...
' to evacuate their homes; the villagers were paid P£ 200 for eight rifles, ammunition and a bus they handed over. They were then transported to the Jordanian border in Jewish buses. Al-Majdal was subsequently bulldozed by the Israelis in 1948.
The Jewish settlement of Migdal was established in 1910-1911 on land purchased by Russian Zionists
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, 1.5 kilometre (0.93205910497471 mi) northwest of the village of Al-Majdal. After 1948, Migdal expanded to include some of the village land of Al-Majdal.
Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is General Secretary and co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an independent research and publishing center...
, the Palestinian historian describes the village remains in 1992: "The site is dotted with rubble, Christ's-thorn, and a few palm
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
and olive
Olive
The olive , Olea europaea), is a species of a small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean Basin as well as northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea.Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the...
trees. The only remaining village landmark is the neglected shrine of Muhammad al-'Ajami, a low, square, stone structure topped by a formerly whitewashed dome. The land in the vicinity is cultivated by Israelis."
Petersen examined the shrine of Muhammad al-Ajami in 1991, and described it as a small square building with a shallow dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
supported by squinch
Squinch
A squinch in architecture is a construction filling in the upper angles of a square room so as to form a base to receive an octagonal or spherical dome...
es. The entrance was on the north side, where there also was a small window. The shrine appeared to contain two tomb
Tomb
A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...
s, one about 1 metres (3.3 ft) high, while the other marked only by a low kerb
Kerb
Kerb or KERB may refer to:* An alternative spelling of Curb * Kerb weight* Kerb or peristalith, a Megalithic architectural stone ring* Kerberos , a computer authentication system...
of stones. The larger tomb was covered with purple and green cloth.
From her visits there in the 1980s and 1990s, Jane Schaeberg also describes the site, noting it is marked by a rusty road sign indicating that, "this was the birthplace of Mary Magdelene, a city that flourished toward the end of the second temple period, and one of the cities fortified by Joseph ben Matityahu (Josephus) during the great revolt of the Jews against the Romans." She also writes that the site is cordoned off by an inner stone wall topped with chain link and barbed wire and an outer barbed wire fence, and still contains the Islamic dome structure and an old stone house. Weeds have grown over where excavations were carried out in the 1970s, which were suspended because of the problem posed by water from underground springs. An Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
family living in a corrugated shack serve as caretakers for the part of the site owned by the Franciscans, the Greek Orthodox Church owns another small piece of land, while the Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund
The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organisation...
(JNF) owns the remainder.
Excavations
At the beginning of the 20th century, R. Lendle, a German architect purchased some land from the Arab villagers to carry out excavations, but no reports were made of the findings. The remains of a church with an apseApse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
and a stone inscribed with a cross and the date 1389 were found near Birqat Sitti Miriam (Arabic: "The Pool of Our Lady Mary") on the Franciscan-owned grounds.
Between 1971 and 1976, excavations also discovered the remains of what is thought to have been a Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
era monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
near the sea. The excavations were hindered by the water from underground springs, as well as the destruction wrought by the bulldozing of the Arab village which pushed many ancient artifacts towards the sea. The mosaic of the Byzantine monastery was badly damaged, though part of the geometric and cross design of red, white, blue and ash coloured stones could still be seen. A Roman era paved road dating to the 1st century CE was also uncovered and identified. To the east of it, a building encompassing 60 metres (196.9 ft) of closed space was revealed that is thought to be either a 1st century CE mini-synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
or nymphaeum
Nymphaeum
A nymphaeum or nymphaion , in ancient Greece and Rome, was a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs....
. Other findings include a tower, aqueduct
Aqueduct
An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....
, and large paved court enclosed by colonnades
Colonnades
A colonnade is an architectural feature.Colonnade may also refer to:* Centro Colonnades, shopping centre* Colonnade Hotel, London* Colonnade * Colonnade Row* Colonnades Leisure Park, retail park and entertainment complex...
to the south, and to the north, a large urban villa. The villa was in use between the 1st century CE and the Byzantine era; a Greek inscription at the doorstep reading kai su ("and you" or "you too") is the only one of its kind to be found in Israel, though similar inscriptions have been found in private homes excavated in Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
.
Other artifacts discovered in the excavations of the 1970s include a needle and lead weights for repairing and holding down fishing nets, and numerous coins. Many of the coins dated to the time of the first Jewish revolt against Rome (66 - 70 CE), four to the 3rd century CE, and in the top layer, one dated to the time of Constantine
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
. Another cache of coins found there contained 74 from Tyre, 15 from Ptolemais
Acre, Israel
Acre , is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country....
, 17 from Gadara, 14 from Scythopolis, 10 from Tiberias, 9 from Hippos
Hippos
Hippos is an archaeological site in Israel, located on a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Between the 3rd century BC and the 7th century AD, Hippos was the site of a Greco-Roman city. Besides the fortified city itself, Hippos controlled two port facilities on the lake and an area of the...
, 8 from Sepphoris and 2 from Gaba.
In 1991, during a period of severe drought, the waters of the Sea of Galilee receded and the remains of a tower with a base made of basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
pillars was revealed about 150 feet (45.7 m) from the shoreline. Archaeologists believe it served as a lighthouse for fishermen. It has since been submerged by the waters once again.
External links
- Welcome to al-Majdal
- Al-Majdal at Khalil Sakakini Cultural CenterKhalil Sakakini Cultural CenterKhalil Sakakini Cultural Center is an organization established in 1996. It is located at 4 Raja Street, Ramallah in the West Bank. The traditional manor that houses the centre was the former family home of Khalil Salem Salah, the mayor of Ramallah between 1947/1951, is now owned by the Palestinian...
- Al-Majdal, Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh
- Al-Majdal