Image Details

On this map, author Reich has marked 25 water installations that he counted while on an informal tour of Sepphoris. All of these installations are mikva’ot, he says, except for three small pools (unnumbered), which he thinks may be bathtubs. The mikva’ot are distinguished by their larger size and depth (so that they could contain the requisite 40 seahs of water) and by the length and shape of the steps leading to them. Like their counterparts in Jerusalem, these Sepphoris mikva’ot tend to be situated in pairs (or, sometimes, in triads). In such close proximity, the water of one mikveh can, if necessary, easily be used to purify the water of another.