✡ Dura-Europos synagogue

The Dura-Europos synagogue was an ancient Jewish synagogue discovered in 1932 at Dura-Europos, Syria. The synagogue contained a forecourt and house of assembly with painted walls depicting people and animals, and a Torah shrine in the western wall facing Jerusalem. It was built backing on to the city wall, which was important in its survival. The last phase of construction was dated by an Aramaic inscription to 244 CE, placing it among just a handful of synagogues from antiquity discovered and unequivocally identified by archaeologists. It was unique among the many ancient synagogues that have emerged from archaeological excavations as the structure was preserved virtually intact, and it had extensive figurative wall-paintings, which in 1932 still came as a considerable surprise to scholars. The synagogue remains, including the murals, are now preserved in the National Museum of Damascus.