Shavei Tzion (literally 'Returnees to Zion') is a small, seaside moshav just south of Nahariya near the border with Lebanon. It was established on 13 April 1938, as a tower and stockade settlement, by immigrants from Rexingen in Germany.
Just north of the moshav is a tel, Khirbat el-Malacha, which contains the remains of a bronze age Canaanite city, which expanded during the Persian and Hellenistic periods. In Roman times it is thought to have been called Nea Come ('New Village') - as identified from a milestone found in Nahariya, dedicated to Nero by the Roman veterans of the Colony of Ptolemais (Acco or Acre). This milestone was one of three found nearby, on the Via Maris - the coastal road built by the Romans to connect Acre with Antiochia.
During the Byzantine period a church was constructed on the south side of the tel, next to the beach, on what is now the very northern perimeter of Shavei Tzion. The church was excavated in 1955 by MW Prausnitz, who reconstructed the beautiful mosaic floors he found there. Sadly they are a little the worse for wear today, protected by a fence from trampling feet, but otherwise exposed to the force of the maritime climate.
The church was built in two stages, the first in 485-6 CE, according to an inscription found in the mosaic floor, and the second in the 6th century. Further excavations in 1999 showed a further expansion of the church during the 6th century. The mosaics form geometric carpets, without figurative objects. The excavations showed that the church and village was destroyed at the end of the 6th century or beginning of the 7th, probably during the Persian conquest.
The church was approached from the west by a fine set of steps:
There are several separate mosaics in need of repair:
To the west of the church is the site of the ancient deep harbour, used by the Phoenicians; the tel is in the background, north of the mouth of Nahal Beit HaEmek:
Around the area there is plenty of evidence of Byzantine civilisation in the form of pottery sherds, such as these we found:
On the beach to the south is a memorial to 12 naval commandos who fell during an ill-fated mission into Lebanon on September 5, 1997. It is composed of a dozen gigantic sandstone slabs leaning on one another, and a separate block carrying the names of the 12 casualties – including a young officer from Shavei Tzion.
We ended our brief visit to Shavei Tzion as the sun set magnificently in the west.
