powered by FreeFind	En Gedi 52 pictures     2 minutes HQ video Remains of the community, including dwellings and a synagogue, have been excavated. Buildings near the synagogue may have belonged to synagogue officials or served as study halls and an inn. (The synagogue has been completely uncovered, the streets and dwellings partially so.) The Site the synagogue The synagogue was built at the beginning of the third century A.D. It was a trapezoid-shaped structure with two entrances in the north wall, facing Jerusalem. It contained a portable Holy Ark and was paved with a black and white mosaic floor. At the beginning of the fourth century A.D., the synagogue was renovated, with the mosaic floor merely repaired. The central entrance in the north wall was closed and converted into a niche for Torah scrolls. Columns were added in the prayer hall, dividing it into a central room with two aisles, on the east and the south. Three stepped rows of benches were built along the south wall. The synagogue that we see today was built in the mid-fifth century. It has a central prayer hall bordered by three aisles, on the east, the west, and the south, and a long entry hall on the west. The Holy Ark was placed in front of the northern wall and in front of it stood the rectangular bamah (platform). A new, decorative mosaic floor with a dedicatory inscription was installed in the main prayer hall at this time, with additional dedicatory inscriptions in the western aisle. An outer staircase at the northwest corner led to a second-story balcony. The Jewish settlement The Jewish community and its synagogue were destroyed by fire, signs of which were very evident during the excavation. A hoard of linen-wrapped coins was found in the courtyard of an adjacent building` the latest coins dated to the reign of Emperor Justinian I. Archaeologists conclude that the Jewish settlement and its synagogue were destroyed in a wave of persecution early in the reign of Justinian I, around 530 A.D. Mosaics from the Synagogue Back to Israel Index