Gamla

On the first day I was here, my group took a strenuous field trip to Gamla. I took random pictures out the window just to mark the kind of landscape that I saw.

The mountains look a bit like California mountains - sparsely treed  and dry.

 

I thought this traffic circle had an interesting center point.

I thought this wild grass was pretty. The plants are often thorny and inhospitable like the ones we saw in Australi, but they are beuatiful.

Gamla is a very important spot in Israel - it is located on a nature reserve and the name means camel (because the hill looks like the hump of a camel.)  It is historically important to the Jews because it was the locus of a Jewish rebellion against the Romans (which was squelched by a seige by General (later Emperor) Vespasian. 


 

They found a lot of Roman artifacts including several hundred ballista balls (from a catapult like weapon - the ballista):



Gamla is also the locaton of the earliest known synagogue.

 

The settlement is very interesting and shows living quarters of 1st century BCE or perhaps a bit later.

 

This is the synagogue (below).

Also interesting is the housing on the hill. Here is an example where you can see the wheel of an olive press (for making oil).

 

The park is also fabulous - with many stunning views.

 

 Gamla is also famous as the home of the Griffon Vulture. I saw a couple but my batteries were too slow and weak to get a picture (This one is from Wikiopedia - they have an 8-9 foot wingspan and are magnificent birds!