The first synagogue was discovered in 2009 during a salvage dig conducted by Dr. Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority at the location of a new hotel at Migdal Beach, the site of ancient Magdala.
The synagogue covers approximately 120 square metres (1,300 sq ft). As in other ancient synagogues, it has stone benches built against the walls. The walls were decorated with elaborately designed and colored frescos and the floor is partially made of mosaics.[1] The Migdal site is just one of seven synagogues known to date back to the Second Temple period, with the relative scarcity of such houses of worship explained by the prevailing religious practice of making pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem for the Three Pilgrimage Festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot as the primary form of worship at the time.
A representative of the company developing the hotel expressed the firm’s delight at the find, which it hopes to integrate into a visitor center that would attract tourists of all faiths from Israel and from around the world. The architect of the project redesigned the complex to accommodate the antiquities and the synagogue to integrate it into an archaeological park open to the public.
