Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Israel opens new Sussita National Park

29 March 2023, 3:45 pm 1 Edit

The mosaic at the 'Burnt Church' at the Hippos-Sussita Excavation Project at the Susita National Park, summer 2019. (courtesy)

Israel opens Sussita National Park, home to important Christian archaeological sites, to the public today.

The park, also known as Hippos, is on the eastern banks of the Sea of Galilee on the Golan Heights and has been the site of intensive archaeological excavations over the last 20 years.

“Especially in these [troubled] days, this is the time to intensify the love of the Land [of Israel] and the country by touring around,” says Environment Minister Idit Silman as she inaugurates the park.

“I invite all the people of Israel to go out on Passover and come to the Golan Heights parks sites in general and to the new one at Sussita in particular,” she says.

Among the sights now open to the public are a mosaic depicting fish, birds and baskets of what may be bread that some archaeologists believe may commemorate the historic location of the miracle recorded in the New Testament in which Jesus feeds a multitude.