Tel Tzuba: RocksThe tel has some wonderful ruins.
The stones in the tel tell an unfathomable story, but if you know how to read them, there are clues. In this wall, for example, notice the different types of stones that have been cobbled together by the last set of builders--some stones neatly carved, some roughly hewn from the bedrock. See the different building styles: Each subsequent set of builders extended the walls up a little further from where the last invaders left them when they knocked the city down. Check out the different styles of windows, one with an arch, one square.
The site hasn't been rebuilt since the last Arab village was evacuated in 1947-48, so it's still a fascinating mixture of different stones and building styles.
Here's a neat piece of bedrock, underneath the bottom of the wall on a northern corner of the old citadel. The diagonal cut (instead of a sheer vertical drop) is a glacis, characteristic of Crusader forts. If your castle is being attacked, the idea is that you throw stones off the ramparts, and they bounce off the diagonal surface below to reflect straight out at the attackers, hitting them horizontally with great force. |
