Walking the Decumanus Maximus

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For That's My World let me take you up to northern Israel, to the remains of a city that flourished from Hellenistic times until the earthquake of 749 CE.

At first it was a pagan city, like the other nine cities of the Decapolis.
In Byzantine times it turned into a center of Christianity.
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This hill looked to the ancients like a mare's head and neck, so when they built a city on top of it in the 2nd century BCE, they named it Hippos or in Aramaic, Susita.
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Our group of archaeology volunteers was given a guided field trip up there last Thursday.

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We were careful to stay on the path on the one narrow ridge that leads up to Susita National Park. Up until the 1967 Six Day War, when Israel won the Golan Heights, this was where Syrian territory began.

Till today the old Syrian minefield is there.
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It was thrilling to walk on the 2,000 year old road. I had to fight back tears. I was humming "The Appian Way" movement from Respighi's "The Pines of Rome."

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These basalt pavers form the original Decumanus Maximus, the main east-west street.

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Here the view is to the west. You can see a bit of the Sea of Galilee down below.

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And the view to the east, to the Golan plateau.

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Enlarge the photo to better appreciate the carvings in the local basalt stone.

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An ancient game etched in stone.
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An inscription inside a tabula ansata.

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Oh! and don't you just love this?!

Masons' marks, the "signatures" of the men who cut the stones!

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The Romans used their engineering skills to bring water UP to the city from springs lower down.

The water flowed through an aquaduct in the hills and then into these interlocking sections of pipe on the side of the Decumanus.
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Note the size of the first opening . . .
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and then the smaller second opening.

Going from large into small channel increases the pressure of the running water and makes it go higher up.

I should have checked with my engineer daughter first, but apparently this is now called Bernoulli's principle. I think the Roman's didn't have a name for it; they just DID it!

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Come back during the week to see the churches of Susita. Shalom!

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UPDATE Dec. 4, 2015:  See a great new  BAR article on the Susita dig, with aerial photos!
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