A 13th century crusader stone Virtual Cache

A 13th century Crusader boundary stone

Boundary stones marked during the Crusader period the border between the fields of the Genoese community of Acre and the fields of the Hospitaller Order near the King's Road to the village of Yasif. The three- unique for Israel- boundary stones were discovered in the fields of kibbutz Shomrat in 1979. The findings were discovered by kibbutz members Zvi Laufer and Amir Peter. They reported their discovery to Dr. Rafi Frenkel who included the findings in the Archaeological Survey of Western Galilee. On each stone is engraved in Latin IANVA = Genoa.
The style of the script enables the dating of the stones to the middle of the 13th century.

Last year, during the 70th celebration year of Kibbutz Shomrat the crusader stone found a new place next to a beautiful mosiacs wall, a communal project, with all family names existing in the kibbutz.
A few meter from here another impressive communal project can be admired: a huge natural stone mosaics sundial which was constructed during the 30 th celebration year of the kibbutz

In order to log this unique virtual cache, please post a picture with the crusader stone and/ or the mosiac wall and or the sundial.

Read more about the Genoese community of Acre and the Hospitaller Order.

Around the corner in the historic kibbutz kitchen building you'll find Alto, a kosher goat cheese restaurant ( closed on Shabbat)

Here as extra reward for finding the cache a banner you can put on your profile page!

Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020

This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.