The green fields on the western outskirts of this vast metropolis are dotted with ripening ears of corn, trash and the skeletons of half-built villas abandoned by bankrupt developers. But Dvir Bar-Gal, an Israeli expatriate and photojournalist, saw none of these as he trudged toward a putrid creek, his eyes scouring the ground. Rather, he was looking for something far older: gravestones buried in the mud — the lost relics of this city's vanished Jews

"When I go out to these villages filled with peasants it's almost like I've gone back to another era," he said. "Sometimes I'm lucky. Suddenly I'll see Hebrew letters or a Jewish star poking out. Then I have to dig it up."

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