 Benjamin of Tudela and Pethahiah of Regensburg, who visited Palestine around 1160 and 1180 respectively, found well-established Jewish communities in Ashkelon, Ramleh, Caesarea, Tiberias, and Acre, with communities in other localities and scattered individual Jews living elsewhere.However, they found only a handful of Jews in Jerusalem.A large volume of piyutim and midrashim originated in Palestine at this time.