Restoring the Roman Basilica in Ashkelon National Park

April 6 2022

The Ashkelon basilica, a large public building that is believed to have been built during Herod’s rule in the 1st century BCE, was destroyed in an earthquake in 350 CE. Its approximately 50 marble columns, each weighing over seven tons, were later sawed up and used as building supplies. As Judith Sudilovsky reports, conservationists have painstakingly collected the remaining marble material from the original structure and put the pieces together “like a puzzle.” The project of excavation and restoration, which began over a century ago, is scheduled to conclude within the next year.

Excavations of the site were first carried out between 1920 and 1922 by the Palestine Exploration Fund based in London under the direction of John Garstang and, in addition to the pillars, also uncovered five large marble statues. After completing his excavation, Garstang decided to establish an open-air museum in the apse area to exhibit the main marbles and statues.

Over the years the museum fell into disrepair and by 2008, the walls of the open-air museum were collapsing, and the statues were in poor condition. The statues were removed for conservation.

During the years 2016 to 2021, the main hall of the basilica and its northern part were excavated by the Israeli Antiquities Authority, under the direction of Rachel Bar-Nathan with Saar Ganor and Federico Kobrin. “Now, one hundred years after they were excavated, (the columns and statues) are being returned to their place,” said the park manager Ronit Rozen.

Read more at Jerusalem Post

More about: Ancient Israel, Archaeology, Herod

Egypt Is Trapped by the Gaza Dilemma It Helped to Create

Feb. 14 2025

Recent satellite imagery has shown a buildup of Egyptian tanks near the Israeli border, in violation of Egypt-Israel agreements going back to the 1970s. It’s possible Cairo wants to prevent Palestinians from entering the Sinai from Gaza, or perhaps it wants to send a message to the U.S. that it will take all measures necessary to keep that from happening. But there is also a chance, however small, that it could be preparing for something more dangerous. David Wurmser examines President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi’s predicament:

Egypt’s abysmal behavior in allowing its common border with Gaza to be used for the dangerous smuggling of weapons, money, and materiel to Hamas built the problem that exploded on October 7. Hamas could arm only to the level that Egypt enabled it. Once exposed, rather than help Israel fix the problem it enabled, Egypt manufactured tensions with Israel to divert attention from its own culpability.

Now that the Trump administration is threatening to remove the population of Gaza, President Sisi is reaping the consequences of a problem he and his predecessors helped to sow. That, writes Wurmser, leaves him with a dilemma:

On one hand, Egypt fears for its regime’s survival if it accepts Trump’s plan. It would position Cairo as a participant in a second disaster, or nakba. It knows from its own history; King Farouk was overthrown in 1952 in part for his failure to prevent the first nakba in 1948. Any leader who fails to stop a second nakba, let alone participates in it, risks losing legitimacy and being seen as weak. The perception of buckling on the Palestine issue also resulted in the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981. President Sisi risks being seen by his own population as too weak to stand up to Israel or the United States, as not upholding his manliness.

In a worst-case scenario, Wurmser argues, Sisi might decide that he’d rather fight a disastrous war with Israel and blow up his relationship with Washington than display that kind of weakness.

Read more at The Editors

More about: Egypt, Gaza War 2023