Sarit Gani

Tales a Tel Tells Sarit Gani

Esther, a 12 year old Israeli girl, travels through time and meets children from the past: Sirgofen the Egyptian girl, Ruben the Israelite, Yuliana the Roman and Musa the Muslim. All of them used to live at the different eras at the city of Beit-she'an, on the north-east of the Holy land. The contemporary Israeli girl Esther, who tells the story, leads us through the periods and introduces her long-gone friends. She reveals her secret: "Out of my window I look at the Biblical Tel/ 18 layers of periods it tells./ Some nights I dream my mother bakes/ an eighteen layers cream 'n chocolate cake." Beit-she'an is a 6000 year old settlement, 4000 of them are buried in the bowels of the earth, while the remnants of the magnificent Roman city of Beit-she'an, which was ruined in a massive earthquake (749 AD), are close at hand and call for us to visit. The reading is accompanied by a time-table (p.24), which will help the young readers and adults as well to find their way through the layers of time.