"The world's three important religions is coming together in the Holy Land, but Mohammad don't actually start here. Jesus does, so today we go see where he is beginning. We go first to Zippori, the town were the mother of Mary lives in the first century B.C.E."
The dirt road is narrow and twisting, but Sol accelerates with his usual nonchalance and whirls with his usual speed into the parking lot.
He ushers us to an excavation site. "When the Jews rebel against the Romans in 70 A.D., Zippori don't join the revolt. The Romans defeat the rebels and destroy Jerusalem and Herod's Second Temple, but they spare Zippori. He gestures toward the site. "Later earthquakes is destroying the city, but the earthquake don't act hard on cities like the conqueror."
Each reconstructed mosaic floor has geometric designs or scenes of birds and fish.
"The artisans who make the mosaics in the time of Jesus don't tint the stones. They use the stones of different colors."
He speaks briefly to the Arab guard near the roped-off paving before he leads us to a barny structure protecting the ruins of a synagogue.
We walk around the scaffolding and look down at the floor glowing with chips of malachite, coral, turquoise, and jasper.
"Here is the most famous mosaic of all the Zippori mosaics. It shows the Dionysian wine feast. Wine is the important ingredient in the Jewish celebrations, and you must drink enough so you are not telling the good guys from the bad guys." He gestures toward the floor. "See. In the center is the 'Mona Lisa of Galilee'"
