Sepphoris (Tzippori)

During Jesus’ teens, Herod Antipas, Galilee’s ruler, developed this city as his capital. The workmen from nearby Nazareth and Cana probably helped to build it. Today we climb the Crusader citadel for a “bird’s eye” view of Galilee. (The Talmud derives the city’s name from its situation like a bird, tzippor, on a hill.)

From this view we can see the ritual baths below evidence of a large Jewish presence from 200 AD, and it is here that the Sanhedrin wrote the laws that would hold the Jewish people together for 1800 years. To the east stood a Roman villa whose mosaic dining room floor has survived almost intact, showing scenes from the life of Dionysus (Bacchus). A woman peers up: the life in her glance overcomes the stones. Tearing ourselves from this “Mona Lisa” of Galilee, we descend through a gauntlet of cactus to the lower city. Its limestone streets show the ruts left by ancient wagon wheels. On one of the paving stones is engraved a menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum. Near the street’s south is a plethora of mosaics, including a celebration of the Nile at flood; on the city’s north is a mosaic of a 6th-century synagogue depicting events from the life of Abraham.