Weapons, armor, coins, and more from Gamla! (Part 3 of 3)

A few months after hiking Gamla, I got to go to the museum in Katzrin with the artifacts from the seige. To say I was freaking out was an understatement!

The Katzrin Archeological Museum has an excellent display (and air conditioning, haha) of more than just Gamla. It's too much for me to tell about in this blog, so I'm just going to focus on what I consider the crown jewel: the telling of Gamla's story.

In addition to the telling of this incredible discovery (a pristine site after 1900 years... other than natural damage, haha), we were able to see artifacts from the dig. Here's just a few:

spears and arrowheads!

a piece of a scabbard

part of Roman armor

coins

coins

oil lamps, weapons, and more

WOW! I still would love to see the suit of armor that was stuck in a ceiling, but I think that's in a museum in either Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. So maybe one day!

I love being in Israel... you can enter into the story like no where else!

Into the Breach! (Part 2 of 3)

After its destruction in AD 67, the city of Gamla, once capital of the Golan, lay in ruin for 1,900 years.

Then, in 1968, it was rediscovered in a study of nature reserves (inside the park is an incredible reserve where you can observe birds, a waterfall, etc). So much here confirms that this is the real Gamla—the description of the city matches that of Josephus', plus the discovery of Roman weapons, armor, arrowheads, ballista balls, iron nails, and even coins.

Wow!

In the last blog, I only gave you the overview of Gamla. So now we're going on an up-close-and-personal tour! Are you ready?

Into the breach!

This is it—the literal breach of the wall. This is where the Romans first tried to get in and the soldiers got stuck in the switchback design of the city! WOW!

The ancient synagogue, built early in the first century AD, during the time of the 2nd Temple. It's actually one of the oldest synagogues ever discovered in Israel!

The mikveh

Remains from the structures dating to the 1st century BC (Hasmonean period):

The view from the partially rebuilt tower (because its collapsed is what facilitated the entrance into an destruction of the city, it was rebuilt to give visitors an idea of what it was like). 

The cliff where everyone jumped:

One thing that is interesting though... this is definitely Gamla. But no piles of bones or remains of the 9,000 Jewish people who died have been found. So... what happened to them? Did the Romans care enough to bury them in a mass grave? Did the birds (so well-known in this preserve) carry them off? 

Their remains remain yet to be found.

What do you think about the story and site of Gamla? Please let me know in the comments below!

Gamla: Northern Israel's "Little Masada" (Part 1 of 3)

When I first heard I was going to Gamla Nature Reserve, I kind of shrugged and was like, "I have no idea what that is."

Literally, I. Had. No. Idea. 

As in, this was one of the places that came to me as a great surprise, and I love it when that happens!

First of all, the views were insane. But the history is what took my breath away even more than the hike did (and it was a doozy!).

Located in the Golan, on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, Gamla is a small, camel-backed mountain surrounded by taller ones, nestled between two ridges and ravines. Originally built up in the early bronze age. It's believed the city walls existed before Israel's conquest of Canaan under Joshua. The area was known then as Geshur, and is mentioned in Joshua 13:11-13).

It was eventually resettled by returning exiles from Babylon, and Herod the Great re-settled peoples here in order to populate border cities. For about 150 years, this was the capital of the Golan, known for producing high-quality olive oil.

Streams flow on either side, and you can hear the water as you climb up. There's only 1 way in, and there was a 6 meter thick wall barricading anyone who wanted to enter. The mountain itself has a steep ridge ending in a sharp cliff. The people of Gamla lived on a slope on the eastern side. 

And that cliff is where they died. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The reason why Gamla is called "Little Masada" is because its story is very similar. But that doesn't make its heroism and heartbreak any less powerful. 

Gamla was built in such a way that they were able to thwart a 7-month siege of King Agrippa II and a Roman invasion in 66AD. Led by Vespasian, 3 legions of soldiers (each one between 4,000 - 6,000) laid seige and a month later, attacked. They entered the city and began to fight, but the pathways were switchbacks, and soon there was a giant bottleneck. Soldiers tried to climb on top of the buildings, and they collapsed, killing all of them.

2,000 years later, excavations revealed some incredible things, like a skeleton with armor stuck in the collapsed roof, with arrowheads and other weapons all around—literally just stuck in time.

This shook the Romans. NO ONE had been able to thwart them yet.

So they tried again.

One night 3 Roman soldiers dug under the tower, removed some stones, and the tower collapsed. Suddenly, they had access into the city.

According to Jewish historian Josephus, the people of the town knew this was it. It was over and they would be taken into slavery (or worse). So they climbed as high as they could behind the city, up to the cliff’s edge- then started jumping off. Once again, it was a choice between death or

slavery. Over 9,000 Jews died.

(the cliff they jumped off)

As we climbed entered Gamla and started exploring, looking at the mountains and ravines all around, a friend said to me, “Can you imagine waking up and you are surrounded by 3 legions of Roman soldiers, hearing the thumping of their weapons and armor?”

She imitated the sounds of the Orcs in Lord of the Rings marching on Helm's Deep, and suddenly I could see it—legions of Roman solders, covered in armor, swords and shields glinting in the sun, horses neighing: all proclaiming to the citizens of Gamla to surrender.

They stood to the very end.

Come back next week for part 2 of this series!

An alternate site for the Sermon on the Mount?

Back in March, I went with a friend to the Galilee. It was almost time for Shabbat to start as we parked near the lake and scrambled up the hill to this overlook that is marked only by a simple stone with a cross carved into it. 

On the map, this observation point on the north end of the Sea of Galilee is just a dot with a name: Ein Nur. I'd never heard of it until last February, when I discovered the Israeli youtubers Sergio and Rhoda and watched their video on this place. You can watch it here:

Their stuff is pretty good, and I've enjoyed watching their videos. They seem to have solid information. I originally went to the site claiming to be the Mount Beatitudes while on my Bible tour in 2017. It was a beautiful day; I still remember all the butterflies and birds fluttering around the grounds. I had some questions though, but thought it was just my incorrect path of deduction as to where it happened. Like, at the top of the mountain? Why not closer to the water? Where were the people sitting? As Sergio and Rhoda point out in the video, the traditional site is a church that was built in the early 20th century, which was built in the place of a 4th century Byzantine church that had been destroyed.

So, I don't know about all that. Whether or not either site is legit is beyond my capabilities to discern at this moment (maybe one day I can be a tour guide or someone who knows this kind of stuff! How amazing would that be?). Somewhere around there the message happened. Jesus walked those hills around the Galilee so thoroughly that it's likely He stood in both places (assuming Ein Nur wasn't under water, since the lake was higher). 

What I do know is that Jesus was real, the messages He gave were real, and on that Friday evening in March of 2022, while sitting there with the early spring breeze lifting my hair, hearing the birds break the silence of the day already winding down—and the Sabbath to come—there was definitely Shabbat Shalom.