The Wonder and Beauty of Israel’s Old, Old Mosaics

[Draggingtree]

The Wonder and Beauty of Israel’s Old, Old Mosaics

 

Treasures unearthed in a timeless land.

 

By P. David Hornik June 16, 2013 - 8:00 am Page 1 of 5

 

In the fall of 1983 we took a sort of pilot tour of Israel, a year before moving here. For me, naturally, as someone who had never been outside of North America, it was all a breathtaking experience.

Perhaps most amazing of all, though, was our visit to Masada—the mountain fortress by the Dead Sea where, somewhat over two thousand years ago, a group of Jewish guerrillas plus their families committed mass suicide rather than be taken captive by the Romans. Masada has remains of the synagogue, storehouses, and bathhouses the rebels set up in the years they hid out there. It offers stunning views of the surrounding, austerely beautiful desert countryside.

Yet for me the most arresting thing at Masada was not any of this, but something seemingly much more plain—one (I no longer know which) of its mosaic floors, which were laid in the Herodian period about a century before the rebels were there.

http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2013/06/16/the-wonder-and-beauty-of-israels-old-old-mosaics/