In CAIRO, there is an area called the ‘Jews’ Quarter, but no Jews live there. The Ben Maimon synagogue exemplifies Egypt’s relationship with its Jewish past. The ancient synagogue still stands, but its roof is gone. Egyptian workers are busy lugging planks across what was once the Ben Maimon synagogue’s sanctuary and pumping out greenish water flooding the dirt floor of an adjacent room. The bimah, the lectern where the Torah scroll was once read, was visible under plastic sheeting, and a niche in the wall facing toward Jerusalem was all that remained of the elaborate wooden ark that held the scrolls.

“Jewish sites are an important part of our heritage, and we place as much importance on the maintenance and development of the Jewish temples as we do to the mosques and the churches in Egypt,” stated Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s chief archeologist and the official responsible for fixing up the synagogue. Egypt’s Jewish community, which dates back millennia and in the 1940s numbered around 80,000, is down to several dozen, almost all of them elderly. The rest were driven out decades ago by mob violence and state-sponsored persecution tied in large part to the Israeli-Arab conflict, a story repeated across the Arab world.

The Jewish community that once flourished in the Arab world’s most populous nation left behind physical traces ranging from grand temples in central Cairo and Alexandria to a holy man’s humble grave in a Nile Delta village. But the modern-day Egyptian view of those relics lies within a narrow spectrum ranging from disinterest to outright hostility.

Jewish sites exist in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, home to a grand synagogue, and in the Nile Delta village of Nekraha, where Jewish worshippers make a yearly pilgrimage to the grave of Abu Hatzira, a 19th-century rabbi and healer. Most sites are in the capital; and more than monuments to the Jews, they are reminders of a more cosmopolitan Middle East, when Cairo and other Arab cities housed a jumble of ethnic minorities in the midst of Muslim majorities.

The best-known synagogue still standing is Ben Ezra, located among Christian churches and souvenir stores. The synagogue, with its marble pillars and ceiling painted in muted greens and reds, is believed to date to 882 AD. The thousands of documents the Jews stored there over the centuries were discovered in the late 1800s and became famous as the Cairo Genizah, one of the most valuable troves of historical documents ever found.

Today the house of prayer is open as a tourist site. A man stands in front of a dusty glass case at the back, offering yarmulkes and postcards for sale. On a downtown Cairo street stands the monumental synagogue known as Shaar Hashamayim, the “gate of heaven,” a structure of grey stone with an interior of carpets and gold-painted walls. Sidewalk barricades and a dozen armed policemen give it the appearance of a besieged fortress.

In the 1940s, upper-class Jews would fill its pews on the Sabbath. On a recent Sabbath it was empty except for a Muslim caretaker. Nadia Haroun Silvera, 55, a lawyer and one of Egypt’s last Jews, remembers her grandmother leading her in as a child. She said no guards were needed then. “They should take care of all the Jewish synagogues. It’s a part of Egyptian history,” she said.

The Negev Desert contains pavement that dates back 1.8 million years, making it the Earth’s oldest surface, according to Hebrew University scientists. They said the “pavement” has largely remained the same and has withstood erosion, volcanoes and underground movement of the earth that has caused major changes to other surfaces.
The Hebrew calendar dates from the sixth day of Creation, 5769 years ago. Rabbis have explained that the mass of “null and void” beforehand may have existed for millions of years. Authorities also have explained that the Bible was written so that everyone can comprehend it, and that one “day” in man’s eyes could be millions of years for the Creator.

Hebrew University researchers published their report in a recent issue of a science journal and the website of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The conclusion of the age of the Negev surface was assumed but unproven until recent the scientists completed their work. Researcher Avi Matmon said that the team of scientists measured concentrations of an isotope that is found only on the Earth’s surface, indicating how long it has been exposed to elements.

The second oldest surface that has survived the elements is in Nevada, but it is only a 450,000-year-old youngster compared with the Negev. Individual objects, such as rocks, have been found to be even older, but most continuous surfaces don’t last as long as the desert “pavement,” which has outlasted modern concrete and asphalt roads. Matmon said that similar results probably would be found in the Sahara and Arabian deserts.

The ancient city of Gamla is located in the lower Golan, on a steep ridge that rises to a height of 330 meters above the surrounding terrain. The city of Gamla is mentioned in Talmudic sources as a walled city dating back to the time of Joshua Bin-Nun. These passages refer to a fortified settlement from the Early Bronze Age, whose remains were found there. Gamla was destroyed in ancient times and rebuilt during the Hellenistic period when Jews returning from exile in Babylon re-populated this area.

Alexander Yannai seized Gamla, from Hellenistic rulers who occupied it in its day. Later king Herod settled Jews in Gamla as part of his efforts to populate the frontier regions of his kingdom. Josephus has documented the city of Gamla, its siege and fall. He describes Gamla as the city situated atop a hill resembling a camel, surrounded by high cliffs. On its steep slopes houses were built very close to one another and the city seemed to be hung in the air at a sharp summit, ready to fall down on itself. It is sometimes called “the Masada of the north”, though it is most remembered for the catastrophic defeat during the Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans. In 66 CE the residents of Gamla joined the Jewish Revolt against the Romans. Under the direction of Josephus, they expeditiously constructed a wall. In the eastern side of the city, the wall descended from a circular watchtower on top of the hill, and continued downwards until it approached Nahal Daliot. It encircled the city’s eastern buildings, including Gamla’s magnificent synagogue.

In 68 CE, when Josephus was already a Roman prisoner, King Agrippa II’s army came to Gamla and besieged the city for seven months, with no success. The Romans, however, did not give up. Vespasian arrived at Gamla at the head of three Roman legions, and again laid siege to the city. A month later, the Romans breached the wall and entered Gamla. However, the defenders succeeded in turning this battle into an overwhelming victory over the Romans, in which many of the attackers were killed. A few days later Roman soldiers managed to creep unnoticed to the bottom of the watchtower. They rolled five stones from its base, and the whole construction fell down with terrible noise, causing panic among the defenders. In a few more days Romans succeeded to seize the city. They killed four thousand of its defenders, and five thousand people threw themselves into the precipices in despair.
Archaeologists started to search for the legendary Gamla and it took them almost a century to find the place. In 1968, Itzhak Gal, a participant in a Sites and Landscapes Survey in the Golan first suggested that an isolated cliff near Nahal Dalyot is the site of Gamla. In 1976, the archaeologist Shemaryahu Gutmann, together with Gal, began to excavate there. His excavations not only verified that this was Gamla but they also uncovered many amazing finds. A small area in the eastern and western parts of Gamla have been excavated and restored. The excavations also uncovered the ruins of an ancient settlement dating back to the Early Bronze Age (c. 5000 years ago).

During the Second Temple Period, an olive press with an adjoining mikvah was built on top of the Bronze Age ruins. Gamla’s most magnificent buildings were discovered at the westernmost part of the city, which appears to be where the wealthy inhabitants lived. The most interesting and impressive building is the western olive press. Its ceiling is supported by two large stone arches, which were restored. The remains of the wall built during the Jewish Revolt was discovered. A breach in the wall that was found is apparently at a place where Romans succeeded to break into the city during their first unsuccessful attack. The watchtower undermined by Romans has been restored.

Gutmann discovered the remains of the wall from the time of the Great Revolt; the place where the Romans breached the wall; the city’s exquisite synagogue; several houses from one of Gamla’s residential neighborhoods; and evidence of the fierce battle that took place there finding hundreds of ballista stones and thousands of arrow heads and nails. The synagogue was apparently built during Herod’s lifetime. This is the only synagogue uncovered in Israel that was built within city limits while the Temple in Jerusalem was still in existence. Ballista stones and arrowheads were discovered in the synagogue. This shows that the battle against the Romans was fought even here. A mikve which served the worshipers was discovered next to the synagogue.

The ruins of a synagogue were unearthed near the city entrance where remains of the lower parts of walls and columns from the original building lay. Four rows of ornamented pillars supported the synagogue’s roof and partitioned the structure into a central hall and staves. An additional row of pillars divided the hall in two. The corner pillars have a heart-shaped cross-section. An alcove, which resembles a built-in closet, was discovered near the northwestern corner of the hall, where Torah scrolls probably were kept.

Another point of interest is Deir Quruh - the ruins of a village. An ancient olive press was also discovered here. The base of a screw-press used in the extraction of olive oil, and the press’s basin and crushing stone are all fairly well-preserved. There are about 200 dolmens in the area - structures built of massive rocks, dating to the Middle Bronze Age. Natural basalt stones were arranged one atop the other to form rectangles or trapezoids, with one or two short sides open. Dolmens served usually as graves.

The Gamla area is part of the Yehudiya Reserve on the Golan Plateau and is bounded by Nahal Gamla in the north, Nahal Dalyot in the South, Gamla ruins in the west and the Mapalim Road in the east. The bounding rivers of the reserve form spectacular waterfalls. In the south, Nahal Gamla drops into a deep canyon and forms the highest perennial waterfall in Israel known as the 51 m. high Gamla Waterfall. The northern waterfall formed by Nahal Dalyot is about 15 m. high, and is dry in the summer.

The Golan is a flat basaltic plateau with a series of volcanic mountains rising from it. The plateau was created by volcanic eruptions which covered the continental and oceanic sedimentary rocks with lava. The running streams eroded the hard basalt rocks, thus creating picturesque deep canyons. The vegetation changes with the seasons and in the winter and spring the place looks especially green and beautiful. Many wild animals live in the reserve, including gazelles, porcupines, boars, jackals, foxes and wild cats. The place is mostly famous for a large population of birds of prey: Griffon vultures, Egyptian vultures, eagles and more. The Vultures observation point is along the path leading to the ancient Gamla.