This page provides news about the ancient sites in the Galilee:  News about archaeological digs, new findings, new sites, and other interesting news items.

The items  appear in reverse chronological order - last-in-first.

   Emergency excavations are conducted in Tell Zibda, as part of the preparations of the new Kerioth-Bypass highway. The site is located on the side of the coastal path of the ancient trade road, Derech Hayam (via Maris).

For more info - check our blog.

Emergency excavations were conducted on a small hill, about 1KM south-east to the Atlit Crusaders castle area. The excavations revealed the foundations of an Hellenistic period farm house. Additionally, the dig unearthed the oldest known  Columbarium (pigeon breeding cave/house) in ancient Israel, a round installation seen in the photo on the right.

For more info - check our blog.

The Carmelites plan to build a 200M$ 6 Hectares garden on the Carmel, which will match the beauty of the Bahai faith Garden. In addition, they filed a plan for a major construction of 350 residence rooms and 100 hotel rooms in Stela Maris.

• Reference: Ofer Petersburg - Ynet.

• Details on the Carmelite order: See Keren-Carmel.

• Details on Bahai garden: See Haifa overview.

 Surprisingly, the Ministry of Tourism - who should have pushed this project in order to attract more tourists- now submitted objections to the plans. Their objections concerns to one of the first sections to be built between Capernaum and Bethsaida. This northern section conflicts with other tourism plans, in association with evangelist groups. Other objections were raised on the concerns of possible damages to the holy sites near the trail.

Hopefully, it will be possible to resolve these objections and start moving the project soon.

View of the north of Sea of Galilee

Tombs near Kefar Hannania.

    A historian from the Haifa University, Dr M Yazbak, claims that one of the most famous Jewish tombs, Rabbi Simon Bar-Yochai in Meiron, was actually a place of worship for both Muslim and Jewish, as documented in the 14th C texts. This tomb is visited by tens of thousands.

   According to his research many of these tombs have been shared in the past by the 3 religions, where each of them claiming some link to one of their Holy ancestors. In recent years, however, many tombs have shifted to be Jewish, according to the Historian.

(a) Aug 7, 2006 : War with Lebanon:

    Unfortunately, the land of Israel witnessed many wars and bloodshed, and the cycle of war started again. The heavy number of rockets and missiles fired at the North of Israel in the past 4 weeks are causing heavy damages and lost lives. In addition, the explosions are burning up much of the forests and fields across the Galilee, especially in the Upper Galilee near the Lebanon border. The fire fighters are helpless in many cases since there are restrictions on flights, and due to the heavy shelling they are risking their lives. About half a million trees were burnt in the Galilee.
 

  Although some rockets hit Nazareth, no historic sites are known to be damaged yet.  There were, however, two kids that were killed in the city of Nazareth.

  The following pictures were captured by our friend near Afula last week, when Fajar-5 Missiles hit the hill of Givat Hamoreh and set a fire to the trees. Note that Afula is a city in the middle of the Yizrael (Jezreel), south of Mount Tabor and south-east of Nazareth, and about 100KM from the launching sites in Lebanon.  At the North side of this hill is the village of Naim, where according to Luke (7:11-17) Christ raised to life the widow's son.

In the first photo below - two smokes (white and black)  are rising from each of the missile hits.

   The next photo shows the fires that started after the attack.

    What is happening recently in the Galilee was already warned in the Bible by Jermiah (1:14):    "The LORD said to me, "From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land".