Below a building in the Giudecca area in Syracuse there are the ruins of a mikveh, a basin used by Jews for purification rituals.
The space is quite intact, both in its shape and its appeal: three main pools, in which water continues to flow to this day, are completed by other smaller basins an arches dug into the rock which served as vestibules.
Preserved in the stone, almost 60 feet below the ground, the Mikveh of Syracuse is no less than the most ancient purification site out of all synagogues in Europe, as it is dated 6th century A.D.
Just walk down the stairs, the Byzantine era is a couple minutes south.
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