Zippori and Akko

A feast of mosaic and fortifications: that is how I could summarize the last day of the study tour to Galilee and beyond. The visit to Zippori (or Sepphoris), some 7 kilometers away from Nazareth, and to Akko, on the Mediterranean Sea, proved to be an excellent conclusion to a tour which gave us a great glimpse at the richness and the beauty of this region in Israel.

Zippori

Excavations in Zippori have brought to light a magnificent city. Remains include a system of streets, public buildings, dwellings, a theatre, a central market, bathhouses, a synagogue and churches. Most of these remains date back to the Roman and the Byzantine periods. The historian Josephus Flavius described it as “the ornament of all Galilee”.

An amazing mosaic from the Nile Room, Zippori.

Zippori begins to get its present splendor towards the end of the second century BC. In the first century BC, the city was alternatively governed by the Romans and by Herod the Great, when he was Governor of Galilee. During this time, Zippori was the capital of Galilee. In 4 BC (that is around the time when the Holy Family made their way to Nazareth from Egypt), the Jews revolted against the Romans and captured Zippori. However, the Romans quelled the rebellion and burned the city, selling its Jewish inhabitants into slavery. The city later came under the rule of Antipas, Herod’s son, who rebuilt and fortified Zippori. Although most of the splendor that could be admired today by visitors goes back to the third century AD, Zippori was being rebuilt again during the childhood and young age of Jesus. So we could easily imagine Joseph, and later on, Jesus with him commuting to this city to seek for work there. Some scholars speculate that Joseph may have worked as a tekton (or “builder”) in the construction of Zippori.

Nazareth as seen from Zippori: some 7 kilometers away

Zippori was also a center of Jewish life in the 2nd century. The Sanhedrin convened there for a time and it was the birthplace of the Mishnah, the first written codification of Jewish oral law.

There is truly a feast of great-quality mosaics in several rooms of the site as well as in the Synagogue. The Nile House is an amazing example of this: here the floors of the building were decorated with colourful mosaics. The largest of the floors was adorned with a spectacular mosaic depicting the celebrations held in Egypt when the Nile overflowed.

A centaur: Nile Room, Zippori

Another example is Orpheus House, where Orpheus, the divine musician is depicted.

Orpheus

Yet another example is the Dionysius House. In the dining hall of the house, the floor depicts in mosaic the life of Dionysius, the god of wine, and his worship. Here, there is also a mosaic of a face of a woman. She has been dubbed as “the Mona Lisa of Zippori”.

The "Mona Lisa of Zippori"

Within the Synagogue, which was built towards the beginning of the fifth century AD, has a mosaic containing more than 20 inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic, which attests to the good cohabitation there existed between Jews and Greeks during this time. The central space was richly decorated with Jewish motifs and depictions of Bible stories.

Central Panel of Mosaic at the Zippori Synagogue

Akko

This city, which has been inscribed as a World Heritage by the Unesco, is a walled city-port with a continuous settlement from the Phoenician period. The remains of the Crusader town, dating from 1104 to 1291, lie almost intact, both above and below today’s street level, providing an exceptional picture of the layout and structures of the capital of the medieval Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. The present city is characteristic of a fortified Ottoman town dating from the 18^th and 19^th Centuries.

Akko: Fortifications and the Mediterranean Sea

At the time of the New Testament, this city was called Ptolemais. St Paul makes a one-day stop there, greeting the believers that lived in the city (Acts 21, 7), before proceeding to Caesarea. The city also features a number of times in the books of the Maccabees (for example, 5,15.22.55; 10,1.39.56-58.60 etc).

During the Crusade period, when it became the capital of the Latinate Kingdom of Palestine, there were four Military Orders which had their headquarters there: The Order of St John, better known as the Order of Malta, the Templar Order, the Teutonic Order and the Order of St Lazarus. Until now, the two headquarters discovered were those belonging to the Order of St John and the Templars. There are series of majestic fortifications overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, of underground tunnels and storerooms. Stunning is the Council Room of the Order of St John, normally referred to as the Refectory. Akko received ships from Amalfi, Genoa, Pisa and Venice. St Francis of Assisi and Marco Polo were among the guests in the knights’ dining halls.

The Council Hall (Refectory) of the Order of St John at Akko

Akko: Bell Tower, Christian Belfry, Minaret and the harbour

All this is surrounded by a maze of small streets, filled with people, tourists and merchandise, typical of the Arab sections. 

The Akko Souq full of activity

The harbour then with a most refreshing view of the blue sea of the Mediterranean has brought to me vivid memories of Malta … as beautiful and much more!

Akko, the Sea and Me