I was surprised by just how moving this place was for me. When we were told where we were going, I thought it would be neat, but we really have seen a lot of ancient ruins by now, and they all look kinda the same. The story is what makes them so special. This place was different for me though. The ancient ruins we saw here, along with the story of course, were really special for me. Yes, I cried. I’m welling up just telling you all the story.
We pull up in the parking lot and get off the bus.
Eitan takes care of our entrance into the area, and we walk in and sit down on this big stair-step like seating area. This is a new place even for pastor, as this is a recent find. A builder wanted to build a hotel on the Sea of Galilee shores, and (nightmare for Israeli builders…) they run into ancient ruins. This means that the government will come in and just take the land away, halting building for archaeologists to assess what is there, and ultimately usually changing everything the builder had planned. It’s good for us though, because of what they found. The ancient city of Magdala, modern day Migdal, is really cool.
So we sit in the seating area facing none other than the ancient synagogue. In front of us there is a huge stone (replica) encased in glass. 
This is like the logo of Magdala.
Check the menorah on the end. We know because of the three feet on the base that this is a picture of the menorah from the first temple…meaning, OLD. This is the teaching stone from the synagogue. In ancient times, the synagogue wasn’t a place of worship. It was more like a community center where people who traveled through the town could stop and teach and talk about other parts of the world and bring new ideas to a community. There was two rooms in this synagogue, one that could hold maybe 15-20 people, and another that could hold maybe 30 or so, with an open area with the teaching stone and seating around the edges. Check it out.
You can see the first smaller room closest to the camera, and the teaching stone in the further, larger room toward the back. The walls and all the seating here are original. The original teaching stone was taken to the Israeli museum. Our guide Eitan says that of all the places in the Holy Land, of all the historical and traditional places that things happened, that this is the place we can be most rest-assured that Jesus was, and where Jesus stood. He would have taught here, right by this teaching stone in the synagogue of Magdala, for sure. I can imagine Mary Magdalene hearing the new teaching coming from her synagogue, and the redemption she heard in His healing words. I was so moved here…see, it’s making me cry again. I can’t give any better explanation than that for the power this stop held for me.
Another thing that I thought was kinda cool. There are many anti-bird tactics being used to keep birds out of the synagogue area for obvious reasons. These birds were not deterred.
You can kinda see all the little pins up there to keep them from landing. And here too.
They were right above and beside the teaching stone. It’s so funny, because that was the only place there was birds, like they wanted to be close to Jesus’ spot! I’d want to be close to Jesus too! Silly, but I thought it was interesting anyway.
On the other side of the synagogue was a Main Street with shops. One of the shops was a fish salting market. After all, Magdala was a fishing town right on the Sea of Galilee. There were small bowl-like ruins found out front of the store, to show what was for sale.
And there were bigger holding tank-like troughs inside the store.
Very cool to see this aspect of the lives of those who lived here then.
Back behind the ruins was built, of course, a church. Since this is a modern find, it is a modern church…and beautiful in it’s own way.
There are 4 small chapels on the main floor, each with it’s own mosaic depiction of a bible story. Here is the healing of Jairus’s daughter, that happened just down the road in Capernaum. Connecting the 4 chapels was one large foyer kind of area with a fount in it.
You can see a couple of pillars in this picture. There were 6 of these pillars, 5 of which had the names of important women in Jesus life, like, of course, Mary Magdalene. 
One of the pillars was blank. Our guide Eitan explained that this is for all women, who are so important to Jesus. Reminds me of a chapter of a book I read called “Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes” that talks about how much Jesus cared for and provided for women in His life and in His Word. Well, ya, of course I cried…you’re getting the theme here, right?
Here’s me with my pillar. : )
On the other end of the foyer was a beautiful sanctuary.
Behind the boat was a pool, what do you call that when the edge of the pool is not visible….zero-something. Right behind it is the Sea of Galilee. So so so beautiful. On the walls were paintings of each of the 12 disciples. Interesting to see how they portrayed Judas compared to the others.
No halo, looking down and forlorn, and carrying his 30 pieces of silver.
In the basement of this space was another worship area, modern and beautiful, with the nicest bathrooms we saw all trip, by the way. Check out this backdrop.
The story of the woman who touched Jesus garment for healing. This mural was taller than a person and a eighth of the way around a circular room. Very cool.
That pretty much sums up our excursion into Ancient Magdala. Did you like it? Mmm. One of my favorites for sure. After we left here, we did the supermarket and Pizza Hut, and then headed down the road to Orthodox Capernaum.