| Visitors who walk through the Archaeological
Garden at Ramat Rachel get a very real sense of 3,000 years
of history. They can actually touch the original walls and fortress
that surrounded the palace of a Judean king. They can also find
traces of later residents – Persian, Hellenistic, and
Jewish – including two ritual baths from the Second Temple
Period. The 10th Roman Legion built an elaborate villa there,
and during the Byzantine Period the site was home to thousands
of monks and pilgrims who lived an agricultural existence growing
olives and grapes. Between the first Islamic Period in the 8th
century and the founding of the Kibbutz in 1926, the site was
abandoned, serving only occasionally as agricultural land.
A large water storage tank was built on the ground where
the palace once stood. In 1956, Jordanian soldiers fired on
a group attending a scientific conference there, killing four
archeologists and injuring another 17. It is hoped that the
water tank will soon serve a new function, as a museum documenting
the 3,000-year-old history of the area and a home for the
Kibbutz archives.
Leaving the archeological site, visitors will continue on
a path leading to “Mizpeh Yair,” a lookout built
in memory of Yair Engel, the grandson of two members who worked
to re-establish Kibbutz Ramat Rachel. “Mizpeh Yair”
offers a unique view of ancient and modern Jerusalem, extending
over the Biblical mountain range that leads to Bethlehem and
the Church of the Nativity, the holy place where Mary gave
birth to Jesus.
|
|
