jewishvirtuallibrary:Archaeological Remains of the Synagogue at Dura Europos, near present-day Al-Sa
jewishvirtuallibrary:Archaeological Remains of the Synagogue at Dura Europos, near present-day Al-Salihiyah, Syria. x The Dura Europos synagogue is one of the oldest and best preserved synagogues in the Jewish diaspora discovered. It was dated to between 165 and 200 CE, when Dura Europos was under Roman control, and served as a synagogue until Dura Europos was destroyed by the Sassanid king Shapur I in 257 CE and its population was enslaved. Its brightly colored walls depicted scenes from the Torah, such as Moses being fetched from the River Nile. What remained of the synagogue has likely been destroyed with the rest of Dura Europos by ISIS in the ongoing Syrian Civil War; a conflict that has also killed over 250,000 Syrians. The whereabouts of the paintings on the walls of the synagogue, which were held in Damascus last, are unknown.To read more about the significance of the discovery of the synagogue in Dura Europos, click here. -- source link