New Galilee exhibition puts Huqoq's ancient synagogue mosaics on public view

A new exhibition called "Secrets of Huqoq" opened at the Yigal Allon Center Museum in Kibbutz Ginosar, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, giving the public its first look at one of the most celebrated archaeological sites excavated in Israel in recent years. The Israel Antiquities Authority announced it on 9 July 2026, and it was reported the same day by the Times of Israel and JNS.

Horvat Huqoq, in the Amiad Forest west of Ginosar and visible from the museum's windows, was a prosperous Jewish village in the late Roman and Byzantine periods, about 1,600 years ago. Since 2011 an expedition led by Professor Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has uncovered its synagogue, whose floor is covered with some of the richest mosaics ever found in the country. Scenes include Samson carrying the gates of Gaza, Noah's ark, Jonah and the fish, the parting of the Red Sea, the oasis of Elim from the Exodus story and the earliest known depictions of Deborah and Yael.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is the original Samson mosaic; other mosaics appear in photographs. Visitors also see a hoard of bronze coins found in a hidden escape tunnel, a ring and a dagger, a scale model of the village and an immersive space recreating part of its underground network. The display presents the wider life of the community, including its spring, farm installations and ritual baths. The exhibition is a joint project of KKL-JNF and the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, with support from the IAA and the US government, and it serves as a gateway to the site itself, which will take several more years to prepare for visitors.

Curator Einat Ambar-Armon of the IAA described Huqoq as a small site that tells a big story about a living Jewish community in the Galilee whose life revolved around its synagogue.