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Published: March 29th 2008
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Druze woman making laffa
The oven is on the left; the cushion for stretching the laffa is on the right. We rented a car last weekend and toured a bit in the north, returning to Haifa each evening. On Saturday we visited Goren Park in the northern Galilee. Lots of wildflowers. We took a short hike to the ruins of a crusader fortress, Montfort. The location of the fortress puzzled me. I would expect it to be built on the ridgetop, with a good view of the surrounding countryside and where it would be easy to defend. Instead it’s situated half way down the hillside.
Sunday we visited two sites in the Golan: Nimrod’s fortress and Gamla. Nimrod’s fortress was built by the Muslims in the 13th century to defend Damascus against the crusaders. It is the best preserved castle in Israel, and is in better shape that the pictures here indicate. Situated on a ridge with sweeping views of the surrounding area, it is an impressive structure in a dramatic landscape. We had a great time exploring the place. It’s really interesting to see the engineering, so much of which is exposed in stone buildings. Arches are used everywhere, not only to create vaulted ceilings, but also to create second storey floors. They even made spiral staircases, which I
wouldn’t have thought could be constructed just from stone blocks. How is such a staircase built? The steps are triangular and each step supported in two ways. First, the triangles overlap each other, with each step resting on the step below. Second, the outer edge of each triangle is wedged into the wall and held in place by the surrounding stones. It's difficult to explain. I hope the accompanying picture helps. More than these kinds of engineering solutions, though, what always strikes me when seeing structures such as these is the staggering amount of effort that went into their construction. The outer walls and the buildings inside them, so massive and so tall, contain an unbelievable number of stone blocks, each one so big. Where were they quarried? What tools were used to shape them? How were they hauled up to the ridge top? How were they lifted onto the rising wall? Though I don’t know the answers to these questions, I do know that I’m glad I wasn’t one of the laborers.
By the time we left Nimrod’s fortress, it was lunch time. On the way to Gamla we passed through Majdal e-Shams, a small Druze town close
to the Syrian border, where we stopped for lunch at a small home/roadside restaurant on the village's main road. Inside was a woman in traditional Druze clothing making laffa, a Druze bread made from wheat dough that is stretched very thin. We ordered a couple of laffas—the only thing on the menu—and the woman beckoned us inside. Did I say restaurant? The place was spare: a room about twenty feet by twenty feet, three walls and a ceiling, the fourth wall, essentially a metal garage door, was raised so that the front facing the street was completely open. No chairs, no tables. We sat on the lone bench and watched as she made our lunch. The stretching process took place in three stages. First, the woman placed a cup or so of dough on the counter and pressed it flat with her knuckles. Then she picked up the dough and tossed it in the air, twirling and stretching it like like pizza dough. Finally, when the dough became too thin and delicate to stretch this way, she placed it on a round cushion and stretched it to its final size. By the end it was probably 2 feet in diameter!
Nimrod: entrance gate
A great earthquake in the 18th century dislodged the stones in the arch, but they held. To cook it, she threw the dough on what looked like a large inverted wok with gas jets underneath. Because the dough was so thin, it cooked almost instantaneously. When it was done, she folded the dough in half, smeared it with a delicious soft cheese, drizzled on some olive oil, and sprinkled it with za’atar (an Arab spice mixture). Finally, she folded the whole thing into a package that can be eaten like a burrito. Scrumptious. Did I mention that the olive oil was locally produced? That she made the cheese? Or that she served us a small dish of olives, which she also made. At the end of our meal, we bought a bottle of olive oil and a jar each of cheese balls and olives to take home with us. Mementos to remember a simple yet great meal.
After lunch we continued on to the ruins of Gamla, also in the Golan. The town is situated on a ridge top that falls away steeply on three sides. The ridge looks something like a camel’s hump, hence the name (gamal is Hebrew for camel). In 67 CE the citizens of Gamla joined the revolt against the Roman
Nimrod: view from the keep
The keep is at the far end from the entrance. It is a "castle within the castle," to which defenders retreated if the lower castle was overrun. conquest. From the beginning the odds were against the Jews: 9000 of them vs. 30,000 Roman soldiers. Nevertheless, the citizens successfully defended the town against the first Roman assault, in the process inflicting heavy losses on the Romans. With their second assault the Romans managed to overtake the town, slaughtering nearly all of the inhabitants. Only two women survived. Today it is still possible to see the breach in wall through which the Romans entered the town. Gamla is really a special place. It's more isolated than many of the other archaeological sites in Israel and gets fewer visitors. As a result, the paths and buildings in the farther reaches of the town are still littered with pottery shards. The town was never occupied after the Romans laid waste to it, which means that these shards are 2000 years old. It’s hard to describe what it feels like to walk through here, seeing all these shards, knowing that they were made by, used by, touched by people who were died here 2000 years ago. Intimate links to the past. The place feels holy. I try to avoid stepping on the shards, but it’s impossible. They’re everywhere. Each step feels like
Nimrod: two stories
The slight arch of the second floor provides support for it. a violation, a discretion of their memory. Disturbing.
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