On the western shore of the Sea of Galilee lie the excavated remains of a first-century Jewish town — called Magdala in the Gospels, Migdal in Hebrew, and Taricheae by Greek and Roman writers. When ground was cleared for a guesthouse in 2009, archaeologists uncovered a small synagogue dating to the Second Temple period, one of only a handful of first-century synagogues ever found in the Galilee. At its center lay a carved basalt block, the 'Magdala Stone,' bearing one of the earliest known reliefs of the seven-branched menorah and imagery apparently modeled on the Jerusalem Temple that still stood when it was made. A market, ritual baths, and a paved street have also been exposed, and a second synagogue of the same era was reported in 2021. This is a real town of Jesus's world, preserved under centuries of landslide debris.
- Where it is
- Western shore, Sea of Galilee, Israel
- Scripture
- Matthew 15:39 · Luke 8:2 · Mark 16:9