Roman period Archaeological excavations on behalf of the
Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) conducted in 2006 found that the settlement began during the
Hellenistic period (between the second and first centuries BCE) and ended during the late Roman period (third century CE). Later excavations in 2009–2013 brought perhaps the most important discovery in the site: an ancient
synagogue, called the "
Migdal Synagogue", dating from the
Second Temple period. It is the oldest synagogue found in the Galilee, and one of the few synagogues from that period found in the entire country, as of the time of the excavation. They also found the
Magdala stone, which has a seven-branched
menorah symbol carved on it. It is the earliest menorah of that period to be discovered outside
Jerusalem. Archaeologists discovered an entire first century Jewish town lying just below the surface. The excavation revealed multiple structures and four
mikvaot (plural of
mikvah or
mikveh). In 2021, another synagogue from the same period was discovered at Magdala. At Magdala, two texts from the first century were discovered. The initial finding is a Greek
mosaic inscription embedded in
tessera, displaying the word ΚΑΙΣΥ, translated as "(Welcome) also to you!". The second finding is a lead weight with Greek inscriptions from the 23rd year of
Agrippa II, referencing two
agoranomoi, enabling its dating to either 71/2 or 82/3 CE. A collapse layer from the Second Temple period supports
Josephus's narrative of the Roman destruction of Magdala during the
First Jewish–Roman War.
Synagogues The remains of a Roman-period synagogue dated to 50 BCE- 100 CE were discovered in 2009. The walls of the main hall were decorated with brightly colored frescoes and inside was a stone block carved with a seven-branched
menorah. In December 2021, a second synagogue dating to the Second Temple period was unearthed at Magdala. refer to a follower of Jesus called
Mary Magdalene, which is usually assumed to mean "Mary from Magdala", although there is no biblical information to indicate whether it was her birthplace or her home. Most Christian scholars assume that she was from Magdala Nunayy. Recognition of Magdala as the birthplace of
Mary Magdalene appears in texts dating back to the 6th century CE. In the 8th and 10th centuries CE,
Christian sources write of a
church in the village that was Mary Magdalene's house, where
Jesus is said to have exorcised her of demons. The village appeared as El Megdel on the 1799 map of
Pierre Jacotin. In the early 19th century, foreign travellers interested in the Christian traditions associated with the site visited the village. In 1807
U. Seetzen stayed overnight in "the little
Mahommedan village of Majdil, situated on the bank of the lake." The
English traveler
James Silk Buckingham observed in 1816 that a few Muslim families resided there, and in 1821, the
Swiss traveler
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt noted that the village was in a rather poor condition. During his travels through
Syria and Palestine in 1838,
Edward Robinson described el-Mejdel, as he called it, "a miserable little Muslim village, looking much like a ruin, though exhibiting no marks of antiquity." He wrote: "The name Mejdel is obviously the same with the
Hebrew Migdal and
Greek Magdala; there is little reason to doubt that this place is the Magdala of the
New Testament, chiefly known as the native town of Mary Magdalene. The ancient notices respecting its position are exceedingly indefinite; yet it seems to follow from the New Testament itself, that it lay on the west side of the lake. After the miraculous feeding of four thousand, which appears to have taken place in the country east of the lake, Jesus 'took ship and came into the coast of Magdala;' for which
Mark the Evangelist writes
Dalmanutha. Here, the
Pharisees began to question him, but he 'left them, and entering into the ship again, departed to the
other side [...] This view is further confirmed by the testimony of the
Rabbins in the Jerusalem Talmud, compiled at Tiberias; who several times speak of Magdala as adjacent to Tiberias and Hammath or the hot springs. The
Migdal-el of the
Old Testament in the tribe of
Naphtali was probably the same place." In his account of an expedition to the
Jordan River and the
Dead Sea in 1849,
William Francis Lynch reports that it was "a poor village of about 40 families, all fellahin," living in houses of stone with mud roofs, similar to those in
Tur'an. Arriving by boat a few years later,
Bayard Taylor describes the view from path winding up from shoreline, "[...] through
oleanders, nebbuks, patches of
hollyhock,
anise-seed,
fennel, and other spicy plants, while on the west, great fields of
barley stand ripe for the cutting. In some places, the Fellahs, men and women, were at work, reaping and binding the sheaves." In 1857,
Solomon Caesar Malan wrote: "Each house, whether separate or attached to another, consisted of one room only. The walls built of mud and of stones, were about ten or twelve feet high; and perhaps as many or more feet square. The roof which was flat, consisted of trunks of trees placed across from one wall to another, and then covered with small branches, grass and rushes; over which a thick coating of mud and gravel was laid. ... A flight of rude steps against the wall outside leads up to the roof; and thus enables those who will to reach it without entering the house." There were two shrines in Al-Majdal: the maqam of Sheikh Muhammad al-'Ajami to the north of the village and the maqam of Sheikh Muhammad ar-Raslan (or ar-Ruslan) south of the village, as shown on
PEF maps and British maps of the 1940s. The first shrine is mentioned by
Victor Guérin in 1863. He writes that he arrived in the village from the north: "At seven twenty minutes I crossed the fifth important stream, called Wadi al-Hammam. Behind him is a wely dedicated to the saint Sidi al-Adjemy. At seven o'clock twenty-five minutes I reach Mejdel, a village which I pass without stopping, having already visited it enough".
Isabel Burton also mentions the shrine for Muhammad al-'Ajami in her private journals published in 1875: "First we came to Magdala (Mejdel) ... There is a tomb here of a Shaykh (El Ajami), the name implies a
Persian Santon; there is a tomb seen on a mountain, said to be that of
Dinah,
Jacob's daughter. Small boys were running in Nature's garb on the beach, which is white, sandy, pebbly, and full of small shells." In 1881 the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine described al-Majdal as a stone-built village, situated on a partially arable plain, with an estimated population of about 80.
Fellahin from
Egypt are said to have settled in the village some time in the 19th century. The Jewish agricultural settlement of
Migdal was established in 1910–1911 on land purchased by Russian
Zionists Jews, northwest of the village of Al-Majdal.
British Mandate era Bellarmino Bagatti and another Franciscan friar who visited the village in 1935 were hosted by the
Mukhtar Mutlaq, whose nine wives and descendants are said to have made up almost the whole of the population of the village at the time. increasing to 284 Muslims living in 62 houses by the
1931 census. The village economy was based on agriculture, vegetables and grain. while 6 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) area.
1948 War During the
1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, after the Arab quarter of
Tiberias was taken by Jewish forces and
its inhabitants were evacuated, the Arab villages surrounding it were also depopulated, including Al-Majdal.
Benny Morris writes that the inhabitants were persuaded by the headmen of [neighbouring Jewish]
Migdal and
Kibbutz Ginosar to evacuate their homes; the villagers were paid P£200 for eight rifles, ammunition and a bus they handed over. They were then transported to the Jordanian border by bus. Al-Majdal was subsequently bulldozed by the Israelis in 1948. The site contained an Islamic domed structure and an old stone house surrounded by a stone wall topped with barbed wire. Weeds had grown over the site where excavations were carried out in the 1970s but had been suspended due to water seepage from underground springs. An
Arab family living in a nearby shack served as caretakers for the portion of the site owned by the Franciscans. Another small plot of land was owned by the
Greek Orthodox Church, while the
Jewish National Fund (JNF) owned the remainder. ==Etymology==