113-679: Kinneret is the English transliteration for Kineret , the Hebrew name of the Sea of Galilee , the largest freshwater lake in Israel. Other meanings of Kinneret and Kineret include: Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee ( Hebrew : יָם כִּנֶּרֶת , Judeo-Aramaic : יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, Arabic : بحيرة طبريا ), also called Lake Tiberias or Kinneret , is a freshwater lake in Israel . It
226-626: A 40-mile (64 km) hiking trail in Galilee for Christian pilgrims, called the " Jesus Trail ". It includes a network of footpaths, roads and bicycle paths linking sites central to the lives of Jesus and his disciples. It ends at Capernaum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus expounded his teachings. Another key attraction is the site where the Sea of Galilee's water flows into the Jordan River, to which thousands of pilgrims from all over
339-650: A dispute with the Pasha of Damascus. Under instructions from the Ottoman Porte , Sulayman Pasha al-Azm of Damascus besieged Tiberias in 1742 , with the intention of eliminating Zahir, but his siege was unsuccessful. In the following year, Sulayman set out to repeat the attempt with even greater reinforcements, but he died en route. Under Zahir's patronage, Jewish families were encouraged to settle in Tiberias. He invited Rabbi Chaim Abulafia of Smyrna to rebuild
452-538: A heavy economic decline due to the war. Following the expulsion of Jews from Judea after 135 CE, Tiberias and its neighbour Sepphoris (Hebrew name: Tzippori) became the major Jewish cultural centres. According to the Talmud, in 145 CE, Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai , who was very familiar with Galilee, hiding there for over a decade, "cleansed the city of ritual impurity", allowing the Jewish leadership to resettle there from
565-476: A historical record of 3.47 meters (11.4 ft), while the 2019–20 winter brought a 2.82 meters (9 ft 3 in) rise. The Water Authority dug a new canal in order to let 5 billion liters (1.1 × 10 imp gal; 1.3 × 10 U.S. gal) of water flow from the lake directly into the Jordan River, bypassing the existing dams system for technical and financial reasons. The National Water Carrier of Israel , completed in 1964, transports water from
678-588: A large-scale procession walking towards the nice suburbs of Haifa creating little damage but a great fear within the population. This small incident was taken as an occasion to express the social malaise of the different Oriental communities in Israel and riots spread quickly to other parts of the country; mostly in towns with a high percentage of the population having North African origins like in Tiberias, in Beer-Sheva , in Migdal-Haemek ". Over time,
791-753: A major political and religious hub of the Jews in the Land of Israel after the destruction of Jerusalem and the desolation of Judea during the Jewish–Roman wars . From the time of the second through the tenth centuries CE, Tiberias was the largest Jewish city in Galilee , and much of the Mishna and the Jerusalem Talmud were compiled there. Tiberias flourished during the early Islamic period , when it served as
904-639: A mortar barrage, killing some Arab residents. The local National Committee refused the offer of the Arab Liberation Army to take over defense of the city, but a small contingent of outside irregulars moved in. During 10–17 April, the Haganah attacked the city and refused to negotiate a truce, while the British refused to intervene. Newly arrived Arab refugees from Nasir ad-Din told of the civilians there being killed, news which brought panic to
1017-614: A new ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, Kiryat Sanz, on a slope on the western side of the Kinneret. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), as of August 2023, 49,876 inhabitants lived in Tiberias. According to CBS, as of December 2019 the city was rated 4 out of 10 on the socio-economic scale. The average monthly salary of an employee for the year 2019 was 7,508 NIS. Among today's population of Jews, many are Mizrahi and Sephardic . The yearly growth rate of its population
1130-659: A new water source for the city. March 2018 was the lowest point in water income to the lake since 1927. In September 2018 the Israeli energy and water office announced a project to pour desalinated water from the Mediterranean Sea into the Sea of Galilee using a tunnel. The tunnel is expected to be the largest of its kind in Israel and will transfer half of the Mediterranean desalted water and will move 300 to 500 million cubic meters of water per year. The plan
1243-535: A plan to link the Kinneret with the rest of the country's water infrastructure via the National Water Carrier , in order to supply the water demand of the growing country. The carrier was completed in 1964. The Israeli plan, to which the Arab League opposed while endorsing its own plan to divert the headwaters of the Jordan River , sparked political and sometimes even armed confrontations over
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#17327726470351356-419: A routine sonar scan in 2003 (finding published in 2013), archaeologists discovered an enormous conical stone structure. The structure, which has a diameter of around 230 feet (70 m), is made of boulders and stones. The ruins are estimated to be between 2,000 and 12,000 years old and are about 10 metres (33 ft) underwater. The estimated weight of the monument is over 60,000 tons. Researchers explain that
1469-611: A small town, long and narrow. He also describes the "hot salt springs, over which they have built Hammams which use no fuel." In 1265 the Crusaders were driven from the city by the Egyptian Mamluks , who ruled Tiberias until the Ottoman conquest in 1516. During the 16th century, Tiberias was a small village. Italian Rabbi Moses Bassola visited Tiberias during his trip to Palestine in 1522. He said on Tiberias that "it
1582-627: A third of whom were Jews, the rest being Muslims and a few Christians. In 1850, Tiberias contained three synagogues which served the Sephardi community, which consisted of 80 families, and the Ashkenazim , numbering about 100 families. It was reported that the Jewish inhabitants of Tiberias enjoyed more peace and security than those of Safed to the north. In 1863, it was recorded that the Christian and Muslim elements made up three-quarters of
1695-609: A wide-scale slaughter of the Jews, which practically emptied Galilee of most its Jewish population, with survivors fleeing to Egypt. Tiberias, or Tabariyyah in Arab transcription, was "conquered by (the Arab commander) Shurahbil in the year 634/15 [CE/AH] by capitulation; one half of the houses and churches were to belong to the Muslims, the other half to the Christians." Muslim commanders and their cavalry have reportedly settled in
1808-434: A woman as a donor to the church's construction. This inscription is the first in the region to mention a female donor. The water level is monitored and regulated. There are three levels at which the alarm is rung: Daily monitoring of the Sea of Galilee's water level began in 1969, and the lowest level recorded since then was November 2001, which today constitutes the "black line" of 214.87 meters below sea level (although it
1921-503: Is 3.9%. Following Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 many ex- South Lebanon Army soldiers and officers who fled from Lebanon settled in Tiberias with their families . In the Ottoman registers of 1525, 1533, 1548, 1553, and 1572 all the residents were Muslims . The registers in 1596 recorded the population to consist of 50 families and four bachelors, all Muslim. In 1780, there were about 4,000 inhabitants, two thirds being Jews. In 1842, there were about 3,900 inhabitants, around
2034-607: Is a fine building and in the middle part rises a great platform (dukkan), where they have their mihrabs (or prayer-niches). All round those they have set jasmine -shrubs, from which the mosque derives its name. During the First Crusade Tiberias was occupied by the Franks soon after the capture of Jerusalem . The city was given in fief to Tancred , who made it his capital of the Principality of Galilee in
2147-399: Is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee . A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity , it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism 's Four Holy Cities , along with Jerusalem , Hebron , and Safed . In 2022, it had a population of 48,472. Tiberias was founded around 20 CE by Herod Antipas and was named after Roman emperor Tiberius . It became
2260-746: Is approximately 43 metres (141 ft). The lake is fed partly by underground springs, but its main source is the Jordan River , which flows through it from north to south with the outflow controlled by the Degania Dam . The Sea of Galilee is situated in northeast Israel , between the Golan Heights and the Galilee region, in the Jordan Rift Valley , formed by the separation of the African and Arabian plates. Consequently,
2373-399: Is at risk of becoming irreversibly salinized by the salt water springs under the lake, which are held in check by the weight of the freshwater on top of them. After five years of drought up to 2018, the Sea of Galilee was expected to drop near the black line. In February 2018, the city of Tiberias requested a desalination plant to treat the water coming from the Sea of Galilee and demanded
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#17327726470352486-415: Is believed that in the first half of the 20th century, the water level had fallen lower than the current black line at times of drought). The Israeli government monitors water levels and publishes the results daily. Increasing water demand in Israel, Lebanon and Jordan, as well as dry winters, have resulted in stress on the lake and a decreasing water line to dangerously low levels at times. The Sea of Galilee
2599-416: Is said to cost five billion shekels. Since the beginning of the 2018–19 rainy season, the Sea of Galilee has risen considerably. From being near the ecologically dangerous black line of −214.4 m, the level has risen by April 2020 to just 16 cm (6.3 in) below the upper red line, a result of strong rains and a radical decrease in pumping. During the entire 2018–19 rainy season the water level rose by
2712-516: Is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth and the second-lowest lake in the world (after the Dead Sea , a salt lake ), with its elevation fluctuating between 215 and 209 metres (705 and 686 ft) below sea level (depending on rainfall). It is approximately 53 km (33 mi) in circumference, about 21 km (13 mi) long, and 13 km (8.1 mi) wide. Its area is 166.7 km (64.4 sq mi) at its fullest, and its maximum depth
2825-500: Is the name used by the medieval Persian and Arab scholars Al-Baladhuri , Al-Tabari and Ibn Kathir . In 1989, remains of a hunter-gatherer site were found under the water at the southern end. Remains of mud huts were found in Ohalo . Nahal Ein Gev, located about 3 km (1.9 mi) east of the lake, contains a village from the late Natufian period. The site is considered one of
2938-466: Is yet another name derived from "Kinneret". The word Galilee comes from the Hebrew Haggalil (הַגָלִיל), which literally means "The District", a compressed form of Gelil Haggoyim "The District of Nations" (Isaiah 8:23). Toward the end of the 1st century CE, the Sea of Galilee became widely known as the Sea of Tiberias after the city of Tiberias founded on its western shore in honour of
3051-573: The Letter of Simeon of Beth Arsham urged the Christians of Palaestina to seize the leaders of Judaism in Tiberias, to put them to the rack, and to compel them to command the Jewish king, Dhu Nuwas , to desist from persecuting the Christians in Najran . In 614, Tiberias was the site where, during the final Jewish revolt against the Byzantine Empire , parts of the Jewish population supported
3164-563: The British Mandate authorities , Tiberias had a population of 6,950 inhabitants, consisting of 4,427 Jews, 2,096 Muslims, 422 Christians, and five others. There were 5,381 Jews, 2,645 Muslims, 565 Christians and ten others in the 1931 census . By 1945, the population had increased to 6,000 Jews, 4,540 Muslims, 760 Christians with ten others. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War , Palestinian Arab residents of Tiberias besieged its Jewish quarter. Haganah troops then successfully attacked
3277-610: The Codex Cairensis and the Aleppo Codex were written in Tiberias as well as the Tiberian vocalization was devised here. The Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi writing in 985, describes Tiberias as a hedonistic city afflicted by heat: "For two months they dance; for two months they gobble; for two months they swat; for two months they go about naked; for two months they play the reed flute; and for two months they wallow in
3390-709: The Hebrew Bible , where it appears as the "sea of Kineret" in Numbers 34:11 and Joshua 13:27 , and spelled כנרות "Kinerot" in Hebrew in Joshua 11:2 . This name was also found in the scripts of Ugarit , in the Aqhat Epic . As the name of a city, Kinneret was listed among the "fenced cities" in Joshua 19:35 . A persistent, though likely erroneous, popular etymology presumes that the name Kinneret may originate from
3503-540: The Jerusalem Talmud was compiled. The Sea of Galilee's importance declined when the Byzantines lost control, and the area was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate and subsequent Islamic empires. The palace of Minya was built by the lake during the reign of al-Walid I (705–715 CE). Apart from Tiberias, the major towns and cities in the area were gradually abandoned. In 1187, Sultan Saladin defeated
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3616-717: The Kingdom of Jerusalem ; the region was sometimes called the Principality of Tiberias, or the Tiberiad. In 1099 the original site of the city was abandoned, and settlement shifted north to the present location. St. Peter's Church , originally built by the Crusaders, is still standing today, although the building has been altered and reconstructed over the years. In the late 12th century Tiberias' Jewish community numbered 50 Jewish families, headed by rabbis, and at that time
3729-686: The Mandatory Palestine and the French Mandate of Syria . The boundary was defined in broad terms by the Franco-British Boundary Agreement of December 1920, which drew it across the middle of the lake. However, the commission established by the 1920 treaty redrew the boundary. The Zionist movement pressured the French and British to assign as many water sources as possible to Mandatory Palestine during
3842-588: The Papal States , but when the Ottomans and the Republic of Venice went to war, the plan was abandoned. At the end of the century (1596), the village of Tiberias had 54 households: 50 families and 4 bachelors. All were Muslims . The main product of the village at that time was wheat, while other products included barley, fruit, fish, goats and bee hives; the total revenue was 3,360 akçe . In 1624, when
3955-632: The Persian invaders; the Jewish rebels were financed by Benjamin of Tiberias , a man of immense wealth; according to Christian sources, during the revolt Christians were massacred and churches destroyed. In 628, the Byzantine army returned to Tiberias upon the surrender of Jewish rebels and the end of the Persian occupation after they were defeated in the battle of Nineveh . A year later, influenced by radical Christian monks, Emperor Heraclius instigated
4068-482: The Pleistocene (about 1.8 million years ago), and caused the subsidence of the lake area. As a result of horizontal shifts in the north–south direction and subsidence of the area, a lake was formed, with an asymmetrical bottom—steeper in the east and a gentler in the west. In the southern part an underwater cliff is present, covered by the lake's sediments. The cliff is distinct in the western part and less so in
4181-665: The Reyes Católicos ( Catholic Monarchs ) began establishing Inquisition commissions. Many Conversos , ( Marranos and Moriscos ) and Sephardi Jews fled in fear to the Ottoman provinces, settling at first in Constantinople , Salonika , Sarajevo , Sofia and Anatolia . The Sultan encouraged them to settle in Palestine. In 1558, a Portuguese-born marrano , Doña Gracia , was granted tax collecting rights in Tiberias and its surrounding villages by Suleiman
4294-459: The Roman Empire , the city was known by its Koine Greek name Τιβεριάς ( Tiberiás , Greek : Τιβεριάδα , romanized : Tiveriáda ). In the days of Herod Antipas, some of the most religiously orthodox Jews , who were struggling against the process of Hellenisation , which had affected even some priestly groups , refused to settle there: the presence of a cemetery rendered
4407-559: The United States ambassador to Israel , requested to meet with him. McDonald presented a British ultimatum for Israeli troops to leave the Sinai peninsula , Egyptian territory. Israel rejected the ultimatum, but Tiberias became famous. During the months after the occupation of the city, a large part of the buildings of the old city in Tiberias was destroyed, and this for various reasons - problems of hygiene , rickety construction, and
4520-479: The Via Maris , and the city was also known for its mat industry. In 1033 Tiberias was again destroyed by an earthquake . A further earthquake in 1066 toppled the great mosque. Nasir-i Khusrou visited Tiberias in 1047, and describes a city with a "strong wall" which begins at the border of the lake and goes all around the town except on the water-side. Furthermore, he describes numberless buildings erected in
4633-538: The Zaydani clan , fortified the town and made an agreement with the leader Nasif al-Nassar of the Al Saghir clan to prevent looting. Accounts from that time tell of the great admiration people had for Zahir, especially his war against bandits on the roads. Richard Pococke , who visited Tiberias in 1727, witnessed the building of a fort to the north of the city, and the strengthening of the old walls, attributing it to
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4746-585: The 1967 Six-Day War. During the war, Israel captured the Golan Heights , which contain some of the sources of water for the Sea of Galilee. Up until the mid-2010s, about 400 million m (14 billion cu ft) of water was pumped through the National Water Carrier each year. Under the terms of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty , Israel also supplies 50 million m (1.8 billion cu ft) of water annually from
4859-502: The 1970s. The city of Tiberias has been almost entirely Jewish since 1948. Many Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews settled in the city, following the Jewish exodus from Arab countries in late 1940s and the early 1950s. Over time, government housing was built to accommodate much of the new population, like in many other development towns . In 1959, during Wadi Salib riots , the " Union des Nords-africains led by David Ben Haroush, organised
4972-464: The Arab section of the city, and British troops evacuated the Arab residents upon their request. Some fled in the wake of news of the Deir Yassin massacre . The entire Arab population of the city was removed in 1948 by the British and partly because of Haganah decision. After the war had ended, a large number of Jewish immigrants to Israel settled in Tiberias. Today almost all of the population
5085-444: The Hebrew word kinnor ("harp" or "lyre"), because of the shape of the lake. The scholarly consensus, however, is that the origin of the name is derived from the important Bronze and Iron Age city of Kinneret, excavated at Tell el-'Oreimeh. The city of Kinneret may have been named after the body of water rather than vice versa, and there is no evidence for the origin of the town's name. All Old and New Testament writers use
5198-558: The Jewish community. The synagogue he built still stands today, located in the Court of the Jews. In 1775, Ahmed el-Jazzar "the Butcher" brought peace to the region with an iron fist. In 1780, many Polish Jews settled in the town. During the 18th and 19th centuries it received an influx of rabbis who re-established it as a center for Jewish learning. An essay written by Rabbi Joseph Schwarz in 1850 noted that "Tiberias Jews suffered
5311-587: The Jordan basin . The lake lies in the center of the Jordan Valley, in the northern part of the Syrian-African rift . Several directions of tectonic movements characterize the region, mirroring the patterns typical of the entire Syrian-African rift: north–south movements, which started about 20 million years ago; stretching movements in the east–west direction, which began later, at the beginning of
5424-521: The Judea, which they were forced to leave as fugitives. The Sanhedrin , the Jewish court, also fled from Jerusalem during the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome, and after several attempted moves, in search of stability, eventually settled in Tiberias in about 220 CE. It was to be its final meeting place before its disbanding in 425 CE. When Johanan bar Nappaha (d. 279) settled in Tiberias,
5537-408: The Kinneret Cemetery next to Rachel —two prominent national poets. In 1917, the British defeated Ottoman Turkish forces and took control of Palestine , while France took control of Syria. In the carve-up of the Ottoman territories between Britain and France, it was agreed that Britain would retain control of Palestine while France would control Syria. This required the allies to fix the border between
5650-444: The Lake of Tiberias and Semakh would not be subject to customs regulations, and the Syrian government would have access to the said landing-stage; the inhabitants of Syria and Lebanon would have the same fishing and navigation rights on Lakes Huleh, Tiberias and River Jordan, while the government of Palestine would be responsible for policing of lakes. On 15 May 1948, Syria invaded the newborn state of Israel, capturing territory along
5763-486: The Magnificent . She envisaged the town becoming a refuge for Jews and obtained a permit to establish Jewish autonomy there. In 1561 her nephew Joseph Nasi , Lord of Tiberias, encouraged Jews to settle in Tiberias and rebuild the city. Securing a firman from the Sultan, he and Joseph ben Adruth rebuilt the city walls and lay the groundwork for a textile ( silk ) industry, planting mulberry trees and urging craftsmen to move there. Plans were made for Jews to move from
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#17327726470355876-403: The Mandatory Syria ( State of Damascus ) off from the lake. The British and French Agreement provided that existing rights over the use of the waters of the River Jordan by the inhabitants of Syria would be maintained; the government of Syria would have the right to erect a new pier at Semakh on Lake Tiberias or jointly use the existing pier; persons or goods passing between the landing-stage on
5989-454: The Sea of Galilee support various flora and fauna, which have supported a significant commercial fishery for more than two millennia. Local flora include various reeds along most of the shoreline as well as phytoplankton . Fauna include zooplankton , benthos and a number of fish species such as Mirogrex terraesanctae . The Fishing and Agricultural Division of the Ministry of Water and Agriculture of Israel lists 10 families of fish living in
6102-422: The Sea of Galilee. Under the 1949 armistice agreement between Israel and Syria, Syria occupied the northeast shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. The agreement stated that the armistice line was "not to be interpreted as having any relation whatsoever to ultimate territorial arrangements." Syria remained in possession of the lake's northeast shoreline until the 1967 Arab-Israeli war . In the 1950s, Israel formulated
6215-427: The Sultan recognized Fakhr-al-Din II as Lord of Arabistan (from Aleppo to the borders of Egypt), The 1660 destruction of Tiberias by the Druze resulted in abandonment of the city by its Jewish community, Unlike Tiberias, the nearby city of Safed recovered from its destruction , and was not entirely abandoned, remaining an important Jewish center in Galilee. In the 1720s, the Arab ruler Zahir al-Umar , of
6328-445: The ancient Via Maris , which linked Egypt with the northern empires. The Greeks , Hasmoneans , and Romans founded flourishing towns and settlements on the lake including Hippos and Tiberias . Contemporary Roman–Jewish historian Flavius Josephus was so impressed by the area that he wrote, "One may call this place the ambition of Nature"; he also reports a thriving fishing industry at this time, with 230 boats regularly working in
6441-428: The area is subject to earthquakes , and in the past, volcanic activity. This is evident from the abundant basalt and other igneous rocks that define the geology of Galilee . The lake has been called by different names throughout its history, usually depending on the dominant settlement on its shores. With the changing fate of the towns, the lake's name also changed. The modern Hebrew name Kineret comes from
6554-406: The armies of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin , largely because he was able to cut the Crusaders off from the valuable fresh water of the Sea of Galilee. The lake had little importance within the early Ottoman Empire . Tiberias did see a significant revival of its Jewish community in the 16th century but had gradually declined until the city was destroyed in 1660 . In
6667-545: The best manuscripts of the Torah were said to be found there. In the 12th-century, the city was the subject of negative undertones in Islamic tradition. A hadith recorded by Ibn Asakir of Damascus (d. 1176) names Tiberias as one of the "four cities of hell." This could have been reflecting the fact that at the time, the town had a notable non-Muslim population. In 1187, Saladin ordered his son al-Afdal to send an envoy to Count Raymond of Tripoli requesting safe passage through his fiefdom of Galilee and Tiberias. Raymond
6780-400: The blue tilapia ( Oreochromis aureus ), and the redbelly tilapia ( Tilapia zillii ). Fish caught commercially include Tristramella simonis and the Galilean tilapia, locally called "St. Peter's fish". In 2005, 300 short tons (270 t) of tilapia were caught by local fishermen. This dropped to 8 short tons (7.3 t) in 2009 because of overfishing . A fish species that is unique to
6893-415: The capital of Jund al-Urdunn and became a multi-cultural trading center. The city slipped in importance following several earthquakes, foreign incursions, and after the Mamluks turned Safed into the capital of Galilee . The city was greatly damaged by an earthquake in 1837 , after which it was rebuilt, and it grew steadily following the Zionist Aliyah in the 1880s. In early modern times, Tiberias
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#17327726470357006-446: The city became the focus of Jewish religious scholarship in the land and the so-named Jerusalem Talmud was compiled by his school in Tiberias between 230–270 CE. Tiberias' 13 synagogues served the spiritual needs of a growing Jewish population. Tombs of famous rabbis Yohanan ben Zakkai , Akiva and Maimonides are also located in the city. In the 6th century Tiberias was still the seat of Jewish religious learning. In light of this,
7119-411: The city came to rely on tourism, becoming a major Galilean center for Christian pilgrims and internal Israeli tourism. The ancient cemetery of Tiberias and its old synagogues are also drawing religious Jewish pilgrims during religious holidays. Tiberias consists of a small port on the shores of Galilee lake for both fishing and tourist activities. Since the 1990s, the importance of the port for fishing
7232-445: The city following the battle of Fahl and the fall of Damascus . Since 636 CE, Tiberias served as the regional capital, until Beit She'an took its place, following the Rashidun conquest. The Caliphate allowed 70 Jewish families from Tiberias to form the core of a renewed Jewish presence in Jerusalem and the importance of Tiberias to Jewish life declined. The caliphs of the Umayyad Dynasty built one of its square-plan palaces on
7345-465: The city has an almost exclusively Jewish population. After the war ended, the new Israeli authorities destroyed the Old City of Tiberias. A large number of Jewish immigrants to Israel subsequently settled in Tiberias. Today, Tiberias is an important tourist center due to its proximity to the Sea of Galilee and religious sanctity to Judaism and Christianity . The city also serves as a regional industrial and commercial center. Its immediate neighbour to
7458-425: The city. In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities , Tiberias had a population of 6,950 inhabitants, consisting of 4,427 Jews, 2,096 Muslims, 422 Christians, and five others. Initially the relationship between Arabs and Jews in Tiberias was good, with few incidents occurring in the Nebi Musa riots in 1920 and the Arab riots throughout Palestine in 1929 . The first modern spa
7571-419: The city. However, during the Third Crusade , the Crusaders drove the Muslims out of the city and reoccupied it. Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, ( Maimonides ) also known as Rambam, a leading Jewish legal scholar, philosopher and physician of his period, died in 1204 in Egypt and was later buried in Tiberias. His tomb is one of the city's important pilgrimage sites. Yakut , writing in the 1220s, described Tiberias as
7684-425: The demarcating negotiations. The High Commissioner of Palestine, Herbert Samuel , had sought full control of the Sea of Galilee. The negotiations led to the inclusion into the Palestine territory of the whole Sea of Galilee, both sides of the River Jordan , Lake Hula , Dan spring, and part of the Yarmouk . The final border approved in 1923 followed a 10-meter wide strip along the lake's northeastern shore, cutting
7797-477: The early 18th century, Tiberias was rebuilt by Zahir al-Umar , becoming the center of his rule over Galilee, and seeing also a revival of its Jewish community. In 1908, Jewish pioneers established the Kinneret Farm at the same time as and next to Moshavat Kinneret in the immediate vicinity of the lake. The farm trained Jewish immigrants in modern farming. One group of youth from the training farm established Kvutzat Degania in 1909–1910, popularly considered as
7910-816: The early and mid-1990s dried out the marshy northern margin of the lake. It is hoped that drastic reductions in the amount of water pumped through the National Water Carrier will help restore the lake's ecology over the span of several years. The lake, with its immediate surrounds, has been recognised as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it supports populations of black francolins and non-breeding griffon vultures as well as many wintering waterbirds, including marbled teals , great crested grebes , grey herons , great white egrets , great cormorants and black-headed gulls . Tiberias Tiberias ( / t aɪ ˈ b ɪər i ə s / ty- BEER -ee-əs ; Hebrew : טְבֶרְיָה , Ṭəḇeryā ; Arabic : طبريا , romanized : Ṭabariyyā )
8023-426: The east. The Sea of Galilee in its current form was preceded by Lake Lisan , which extended from the northern Sea of Galilee to Hatzeva in the south, more than 200 km (120 mi) from the present southernmost point of the lake. Lake Lisan was preceded by Lake Ovadia, a much smaller fresh water lake. Lake Kinneret was formed in its current form less than 20,000 years ago, as a result of tectonic subsidence and
8136-666: The fear that the Arabs would return to the city, when it became known that this was a requirement of Jordan as part of the negotiations conducted in Rhodes . Finally, the authorities acceded to the initiative of the Jewish National Fund , Yosef Nahmani, who argued that the houses of the Old City should be demolished, despite the opposition of Mayor Shimon Dahan. The destruction began in the summer of 1948 and continued until
8249-461: The first kibbutz , another group founded Kvutzat Kinneret in 1913, and yet another the first proper kibbutz, Ein Harod , in 1921, the same year when the first moshav , Nahalal , was established by a group trained at the farm. The Jewish settlements around Kinneret Farm are considered the cradle of the kibbutz culture of early Zionism ; Kvutzat Kinneret is the birthplace of Naomi Shemer , buried at
8362-429: The first months of 1949. A visit by David Ben-Gurion to the city brought an end to the destruction, after 477 out of 696 houses were destroyed according to official estimates. After the destruction remained the remains of the wall and the citadel, several houses on the outskirts of the city, as well as the two mosques that operated in the city. The area stood abandoned for decades, until operations began to restore it in
8475-846: The first permanent human settlements in the world from a time predating the Neolithic Revolution . According to Sugimoto (2015), the Iron Age IB (1150–1000 BCE) cities in the northeastern region of the Sea of Galilee likely reflect the activities of the Kingdom of Geshur , mentioned in the Bible. Also, the later Iron Age IIA–B cities here are linked with the southern expansion of the Aram-Damascus kingdom. Among these Galilean cities are Tel Dover, Tel ‘En Gev, Tel Hadar, Tel Bethsaida, and Tel Kinrot. The Sea of Galilee lies on
8588-459: The former shore. In October 1938, Arab militants murdered 19 Jews in Tiberias during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine . Between 8–9 April 1948, sporadic shooting broke out between the Jewish and Arab neighborhoods of Tiberias. Arab Liberation Army and irregular forces attacked and closed the Rosh Pinnah road, isolating the northern Jewish settlements. On 10 April, the Haganah launched
8701-653: The hot springs for three days. "Afterwards they dip in another spring which is cold, whereupon ... they become cured." Tiberias was plagued by incursions by the radical Shi'ite Qarmatians at the beginning of the tenth century. During that period, the Academy of Eretz Israel left Tiberias for Jerusalem. Later in the same century, the region came under the control by the Fatimid Caliphate . By this time, Tiberias had experienced its last period of prosperity; dried fruit, oil, and wine had been exported to Cairo via
8814-491: The lake to Jordan . In recent years the Israeli government has made extensive investments in water conservation , reclamation and desalination infrastructure in the country. This has allowed it to significantly reduce the amount of water pumped from the lake annually in an effort to restore and improve its ecological environment, as well as respond to some of the most extreme drought conditions in hundreds of years affecting
8927-504: The lake to the population centers of Israel, and in the past supplied most of the country's drinking water. In 2016 the lake supplied approximately 10% of Israel's drinking water needs. In 1964, Syria attempted construction of a Headwater Diversion Plan that would have blocked the flow of water into the Sea of Galilee, sharply reducing the water flow into the lake. This project and Israel's attempt to block these efforts in 1965 were factors which played into regional tensions culminating in
9040-414: The lake's intake basin since 1998. Therefore, it was expected that in 2016 only about 25 million m (880 million cu ft) of water would be drawn from the lake for Israeli domestic consumption, a small fraction of the amount typically drawn from the lake over the previous decades. Tourism around the Sea of Galilee is an important economic segment. Historical and religious sites in
9153-437: The lake, Tristramella sacra , used to spawn in the marsh and has not been seen since the 1990s droughts. Conservationists fear this species may have become extinct . Low water levels in drought years have stressed the lake's ecology . This may have been aggravated by over-extraction of water for either the National Water Carrier to supply other parts of Israel or, since 1994, for the supply of water to Jordan. Droughts of
9266-474: The lake, with a total of 27 species – 19 native and 8 introduced species . Local fishermen talk of four types of fish: "مشط musht" ( tilapia ); sardin (the Kinneret bleak, Mirogrex terraesanctae ); "بني biny" or Jordan barbel, Luciobarbus longiceps ( barb-like ); and North African sharptooth catfish ( Clarias gariepinus ). The tilapia species include the Galilean tilapia ( Sarotherodon galilaeus ),
9379-590: The lake. Archaeologists discovered one such boat, nicknamed the Jesus Boat , in 1986. In the New Testament, much of the ministry of Jesus occurs on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In those days, there was a continuous ribbon development of settlements and villages around the lake and plenty of trade and ferrying by boat. The Synoptic Gospels of Mark 1 :14–20), Matthew 4 :18–22), and Luke 5 :1–11) describe how Jesus recruited four of his apostles from
9492-695: The late 1st century CE name. Sea of Tiberias is also the name mentioned in Roman texts and in the Jerusalem Talmud , and it was adopted into Arabic as Buḥayret Ṭabariyyā (بحيرة طبريا), "Lake Tiberias". From the Umayyad through the Mamluk period, the lake was known in Arabic as Bahr al-Minya , the "Sea of Minya", after the Umayyad qasr complex, whose ruins are still visible at Khirbat al-Minya . This
9605-466: The least" during an Arab rebellion which took place in 1834. Around 600 people, including nearly 500 Jews, died when the town was devastated by the 1837 Galilee earthquake . An American expedition reported that Tiberias was still in a state of disrepair in 1847/1848. Rabbi Haim Shmuel Hacohen Konorti, born in Spain in 1792, settled in Tiberias at the age of 45 and was a driving force in the restoration of
9718-566: The mud." As "the capital of Jordan Province, and a city in the Valley of Canaan. ... The town is narrow, hot in summer and unhealthy...There are here eight natural hot baths, where no fuel need be used, and numberless basins besides of boiling water. The mosque is large and fine, and stands in the market-place. Its floor is laid in pebbles, set on stone drums, placed close one to another." According to Muqaddasi, those who suffered from scab or ulcers, and other such diseases came to Tiberias to bathe in
9831-543: The multicultural city may have been the most tolerant of the Middle East. Jewish scholarship flourished from the beginning of the 8th century to the end of the 10th, when the oral traditions of ancient Hebrew , still in use today, were codified. One of the leading members of the Tiberian Masoretic community was Aaron ben Moses ben Asher , who refined the oral tradition now known as Tiberian Hebrew . Both
9944-532: The north-western part of the lake. In 61 CE Herod Agrippa II annexed the city to his kingdom whose capital was Caesarea Philippi . During the First Jewish–Roman War , the Jewish rebels took control of the city and destroyed Herod's palace, and were able to prevent the city from being pillaged by the army of Agrippa II , the Jewish ruler who had remained loyal to Rome. Eventually, the rebels were expelled from Tiberias, and while most other cities in
10057-434: The population (2,000 to 4,000). A population list from about 1887 showed that Tiberias had a population of about 3,640; 2,025 Jews, 30 Latins, 215 Catholics, 15 Greek Catholics, and 1,355 Muslims. In 1901, the Jews of Tiberias numbered about 2,000 in a total population of 3,600. By 1912, the population reached 6,500. This included 4,500 Jews, 1,600 Muslims and 400 Christians. In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by
10170-533: The provinces of Judaea, Galilee and Idumea were razed, Tiberias was spared this fate because its inhabitants had decided not to fight against Rome. It became a mixed city after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE; with Judea subdued, the surviving southern Jewish population migrated to Galilee. There is no direct indication that Tiberias, as well as the rest of Galilee, took part in the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136 CE, thus allowing it to continue to exist, despite
10283-415: The region draw both local and foreign tourists. The Sea of Galilee is an attraction for Christian pilgrims who visit Israel to see the places where Jesus performed miracles according to the New Testament. Alonzo Ketcham Parker, a 19th-century American traveler, called visiting the Sea of Galilee "a 'fifth gospel' which one read devoutly, his heart overflowing with quiet joy". In April 2011, Israel unveiled
10396-464: The residents of Tiberias. The Arab population of Tiberias (6,000 residents or 47.5% of the population) was evacuated by the British forces on 18 April 1948. The Jewish population looted the Arab areas and had to be suppressed by force by the Haganah and Jewish police, who killed or injured several looters. On 30 December 1948, when David Ben-Gurion was staying in Tiberias, James Grover McDonald ,
10509-399: The sea provides the setting for Jesus' third post-resurrection appearance to his disciples ( John 21 ). In 135 CE, Bar Kokhba's revolt was put down which was part of the Jewish–Roman wars . The Romans responded by banning all Jews from Jerusalem . The center of Jewish culture and learning shifted to the region of Galilee and the Kinneret, particularly Tiberias. It was in this region that
10622-454: The sea. Other economic activities include fishing in the lake and agriculture , particularly bananas , dates, mangoes, grapes and olives in the fertile belt of land surrounding it. The Turkish Aviators Monument, erected during the Ottoman era, stands near Kibbutz Ha'on on the lakeshore, commemorating the Turkish pilots whose monoplanes crashed en route to Jerusalem. The warm waters of
10735-458: The second Roman emperor, Tiberius . In the New Testament, the term "sea of Galilee" ( Greek : θάλασσαν τῆς Γαλιλαίας , thalassan tēs Galilaias ) is used in the Gospel of Matthew 4:18; 15:29 , the Gospel of Mark 1:16; 7:31 , and in the Gospel of John 6:1 as "the sea of Galilee, which is [the sea] of Tiberias" (θαλάσσης τῆς Γαλιλαίας τῆς Τιβεριάδος, thalassēs tēs Galilaias tēs Tiberiados ),
10848-690: The shores of the Kinneret: the fishermen Simon and his brother Andrew and the brothers John and James . One of Jesus' famous teaching episodes, the Sermon on the Mount , is supposed to have been given on a hill overlooking the Kinneret. Many of his miracles are also said to have occurred here including his walking on water , calming the storm , the disciples and the miraculous catch of fish , and his feeding five thousand people (in Tabgha ). In John's Gospel
10961-588: The shrinking up of Lake Lisan. In 1986 the Ancient Galilee Boat , also known as the Jesus Boat, was discovered on the northwest shore during a drought when water levels receded. It is an ancient fishing boat from the 1st century AD, and although there is no evidence directly linking the boat to Jesus and his disciples, it nevertheless is an example of the kind of boat that Jesus and his disciples, some of whom were fishermen, may have used. During
11074-471: The site resembles early burial sites in Europe and was likely built in the early Bronze Age . In February 2018, archaeologists discovered seven intact mosaics with Greek inscriptions. One inscription, at five meters one of the longest found to date in western Galilee, gives the names of donors and the names and positions of church officials, including Irenaeus, bishop of Tyre in 445. Another mosaic mentions
11187-452: The site ritually unclean for the Jews and particularly for the priestly caste . Antipas settled many non-Jews there from rural Galilee and other parts of his domains in order to populate his new capital, and built a palace on the acropolis . The prestige of Tiberias was so great that the Sea of Galilee soon came to be named the Sea of Tiberias; however, the Jewish population continued to call it Yam HaKineret , its traditional name. The city
11300-546: The slopes and filled the streets and buildings with water so rapidly that many people did not have time to escape; the loss of life and property was great. The city rebuilt on the slopes and the British Mandatory government planted the Swiss Forest on the slopes above the town to hold the soil and prevent similar disasters from recurring. A new seawall was constructed, moving the shoreline several yards out from
11413-470: The south, Hammat Tiberias , which is now part of modern Tiberias, has been known for its hot springs , believed to cure skin and other ailments , for some two thousand years. Jewish tradition holds that Tiberias was built on the site of the ancient Israelite village of Rakkath or Rakkat , first mentioned in the Book of Joshua . In Talmudic times, the Jews still referred to it by this name. Tiberias
11526-506: The term "sea" (Hebrew יָם yam , Greek θάλασσα), with the exception of Luke , who calls it "the Lake of Gennesaret" ( Luke 5:1 ), from the Greek λίμνη Γεννησαρέτ ( limnē Gennēsaret ), the "Grecized form of Chinnereth." The Babylonian Talmud as well as Flavius Josephus mention the sea by the name "Sea of Ginosar" after the small fertile plain of Ginosar that lies on its western side. Ginosar
11639-488: The very water, for the bed of the lake in this part is rock; and they have built pleasure houses that are supported on columns of marble , rising up out of the water. The lake is very full of fish. [] The Friday Mosque is in the midst of the town. At the gate of the mosque is a spring, over which they have built a hot bath. [] On the western side of the town is a mosque known as the Jasmine Mosque (Masjid-i-Yasmin). It
11752-484: The waterfront to the north of Tiberias, at Khirbat al-Minya . Tiberias was revitalised in 749, after Bet Shean was destroyed in an earthquake. An imposing mosque, 90 metres (300 feet) long by 78 metres (256 feet) wide, resembling the Great Mosque of Damascus , was raised at the foot of Mount Berenice next to a Byzantine church, to the south of the city, as the eighth century ushered in Tiberias's golden age, when
11865-568: The world come to be baptized every year. Israel's most well-known open water swim race, the Kinneret Crossing, is held every year in September, drawing thousands of open water swimmers to participate in competitive and noncompetitive events. Tourists also partake in the building of rafts on Lavnun Beach , called Rafsodia. Here many different age groups work together to build a raft with their bare hands and then sail that raft across
11978-489: Was a mixed city ; under British rule it had a majority Jewish population, but with a significant Arab community. During the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine , fighting broke out between the Jewish residents of Tiberias and its Palestinian Arab minority. As the Haganah took over, British troops evacuated the entire Palestinian Arab population; they were refused reentry after the war, such that today
12091-462: Was a big city ... and now it is ruined and desolate". He described the village there, in which he said there were "ten or twelve" Muslim households. The area, according to Bassola, was dangerous "because of the Arabs", and in order to stay there, he had to pay the local governor for his protection. As the Ottoman Empire expanded along the southern Mediterranean coast under Sultan Selim I ,
12204-544: Was at first a strictly pagan city, but later became populated mainly by Jews, with its growing spiritual and religious status exerting a strong influence on balneological practices. Conversely, in Antiquities of the Jews , the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus calls the village with hot springs Emmaus, today's Hammat Tiberias, located near Tiberias. This name also appears in his work The Jewish War . Under
12317-414: Was built in 1929. The landscape of the modern town was shaped by the great flood of 11 November 1934. Deforestation on the slopes above the town combined with the fact that the city had been built as a series of closely packed houses and buildings – usually sharing walls – built in narrow roads paralleling and closely hugging the shore of the lake. Flood waters carrying mud, stones, and boulders rushed down
12430-584: Was founded sometime around 18–20 CE in the Herodian Tetrarchy of Galilee and Perea by the Roman client king Herod Antipas , son of Herod the Great . Herod Antipas made it the capital of his realm in Galilee and named it after the Roman emperor Tiberius . The city was built in immediate proximity to a spa which had developed around seventeen natural mineral hot springs, Hammat Tiberias . Tiberias
12543-468: Was governed by a city council of 600 with a committee of ten until 44 CE , when a Roman procurator was set over the city after the death of Herod Agrippa I . Tiberias is mentioned in John 6:23 as the location from which boats had sailed to the opposite, eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd seeking Jesus after the miraculous feeding of the 5000 used these boats to travel back to Capernaum on
12656-443: Was gradually decreasing, with the decline of the Tiberias lake level, due to continuing droughts and increased pumping of fresh water from the lake. It was expected that the lake of Tiberias will regain its original level (almost 6 metres (20 feet) higher than today), with the full operational capacity of Israeli desalination facilities by 2014. In 2020, the lake raised above the level it was in 1990. In 2012, plans were announced for
12769-536: Was obliged to grant the request under the terms of his treaty with Saladin. Saladin's force left Caesarea Philippi to engage the fighting force of the Knights Templar . The Templar force was destroyed in the encounter . Saladin then besieged Tiberias; after six days the town fell. On 4 July 1187 Saladin defeated the Crusaders coming to relieve Tiberias at the Battle of Hattin , 10 kilometres (6 miles) outside
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