Free Republic

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — The carved stone block is about the size of an occasional table. It has held its secrets for two millenniums. Whoever engraved its enigmatic symbols was apparently depicting the ancient Jewish temples. But what makes the stone such a rare find in biblical archaeology, according to scholars, is that when it was carved, the Second Temple still stood in Jerusalem for the carver to see. The stone is a kind of ancient snapshot. And it is upending some long-held scholarly assumptions about ancient synagogues and their relationship with the Temple, a center of Jewish pilgrimage and...

Re-focus Halloween! If your school insists on having some kind of Halloween celebration, recommend that they steer away from the ghoulish and occult and, instead, focus on the event as a fall festival. ... "When you turn evil into a game, it trivializes it and numbs children to its darkness." (excerpt from email) GREAT RESOURCE SITE for Teachers, Parents & Students.

A city carved in stoneWONDERS OF THE WORLD--THE SEVEN WONDERS OF MAN Petra Location: Southwestern Jordan, between the Red Sea on the south and the Dead Sea on the north. Size: About 40 square miles, but main sights are in a compact area. Population: Petra is no longer officially populated. A separate town has been built for natives who used to occupy the surrounding caves. Geography: Sandstone hills and broad desert plateaus, cleft by valleys. Ancient name for Nabateans: Arabians. By Robert Cross Chicago Tribune staff reporter Originally published January 11, 2004 WADI MUSA, Jordan -- First, one should understand...