Trip to Zippori

I've been (not-so) gently prodded over the past month to write a blog post. I've become a lazy blogger in light of Facebook. I know. Why sit down for 15 minutes, attempting to type out a post while the kids are screaming at one another and your lousy internet connection is not even fast enough to download a couple of pictures? Not entirely motivating. Anyway, rather than give you a "here is what I've been doing for the past year" post, since those who read my blog are also my friends on Facebook, I'll just post our most recent excursion in Israel. Nazareth is really close (about a 20 minute drive) to the ancient town of Tsippori (Sephoris). Back in its heyday, it was the major metropolis in the area. It was pretty Hellenized and later Romanized; in other words, a fairly modern city. What's interesting is that Sephoris is never mentioned in any of the gospels, although it was a hub of business in the area. More than likely, Jesus would have done business here during his carpenter days.

Entry to Sephoris with the kids. The weather was perfect for the walk!

Ancient Reservoir. If you've ever traveled in Israel, you probably know that before summer even hits, we have absolutely no rain until mid to late autumn. That's almost six months without rain! You can see the value of having a reservoir for those dry, hot months.

One of several floor mosaics. There is an entire building here that contains these beautiful works of art, and it is presumed this was a government building of sorts.

A description of how these mosaics were constructed. Quite fascinating!

A synagogue dating back to around the 6th century CE (give or take a couple hundred years). One of the oddest things on this floor is a giant Zodiac wheel that has Greek/ Roman gods along with traditional Jewish imagery such as stories from the Pentateuch, temple artifacts, etc. You can see a bit of it in this picture on the lower left corner, but a better image can be found here.