Along the lakefront of Tiberias, archaeologists have uncovered remains of a 12th-century Crusader fortress, including a well-preserved gateway, part of the northern fortification wall, a moat once filled with lake water and architectural elements with Jewish-themed carvings indicating that earlier they may have been part of a synagogue from the Mishnah and Talmudic periods (second to sixth centuries A.D.).
Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Yosef Stepansky led the excavation last spring and summer. According to Stepansky, the most impressive find was an 11-foot-wide and 23-foot-long section of what he believes to be the northern fortification wall of the fortress, complete with a 10-foot-wide gateway. The exposed parts of the structure include a flagstone floor, hewn stone gateposts preserved to a height of 3 feet, grooves for the doorposts and the iron grill known as a portcullis. The fortification wall, also built of hewn stone, was excavated to a depth of 13 feet.
The excavators also discovered beautiful architectural fragments from an earlier, Roman-period, building, including a basalt hewn stone with what appears to be a five-branched candelabra, or menorah, and two parts of a decorated limestone lintel—one section incorporated into the gate and another discarded into what Stepansky believes was the moat—engraved with acanthus leaves and a Hercules wreath typical of Roman-era architecture.
According to Stepansky, the lintel was once part of the main entrance of a grand synagogue; the eastern entrance of the Capernaum synagogue, he said, has an almost identical lintel. Some archaeologists such as Zvi Uri Maoz, have even suggested that the stones from the Capernaum synagogue were brought from Tiberias.
“The theory is that the synagogue at Kfar Nahum [the Hebrew name of Capernaum] itself is Byzantine,” Stepansky said, “but they were reusing stones from the Roman period. And since the stones we found in the [Tiberias] wall are almost identical to the ones in Kfar Nahum, this may hint that the stones were brought from Tiberias.” Stepansky added that basalt is the local stone of the Capernaum area, but the synagogue there is made of white limestone.
Though for many years archaeologists looked for the fortress outside of historical Tiberias, the possibility that it might be located on the shorefront was raised by Zvi Razi and Eliot Braun in 1987. The recent discovery now proves their theory correct.
The existence of the castle is well attested in historical sources because of Saladin’s siege and conquest of Tiberias in 1187, when the city was the capital of the Principality of Galilee of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Afterward the fortress lay in ruins until the 18th century, when the Jewish Quarter was built.
Combining the knowledge acquired from the newly uncovered remains with information gathered from earlier soundings, Stepansky believes the castle may have measured approximately 230 feet by 165 feet. He has drafted preliminary plans for the reconstruction of the Crusader fortress. He acknowledges that further excavation at the site is problematic because the area is developed and includes a memorial park. The conservation department of the Israel Antiquities Authority will, however, partly 017reconstruct the entrance gate and incorporate it into a plan aimed at developing the area for tourists.
Stepansky’s family has roots in Tiberias’s Jewish Quarter, and the discovery of the fortress helps explain many of the legends he heard from his grandmother about underground tunnels and cavernous halls.
“Now I know what was under my grandmother’s house,” he said.
Along the lakefront of Tiberias, archaeologists have uncovered remains of a 12th-century Crusader fortress, including a well-preserved gateway, part of the northern fortification wall, a moat once filled with lake water and architectural elements with Jewish-themed carvings indicating that earlier they may have been part of a synagogue from the Mishnah and Talmudic periods (second to sixth centuries A.D.). Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Yosef Stepansky led the excavation last spring and summer. According to Stepansky, the most impressive find was an 11-foot-wide and 23-foot-long section of what he believes to be the northern fortification wall of the fortress, complete […]
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