Galilee

Galilee (Hebrew, galil, “circle”), region, northern Israel. In ancient times the boundaries of the region were vague, but by the beginning of the Christian era, Galilee was a Roman province comprising all of what was then northern Palestine west of the River Jordan and Lake Tiberias. The region is generally mountainous and is divided geographically into Upper Galilee in the north and Lower Galilee in the south. Peaks in Upper Galilee attain heights of about 900 m (3,000 ft) above sea level, with Mount Meiron rising 1,208 m (3,963 ft); the terrain in the south is more level. The entire region is well watered; the mountain slopes are covered with shrubs, and grain is cultivated on the large plains. Upper Galilee was long famous for the cultivation of olives and grapes. During ancient times the area contained numerous towns and villages and was heavily populated with Syrians, Phoenicians, Arabs, Greeks, and Jews.

In ad 70, Tiberias, one of the important cities in Galilee, became a centre of rabbinical learning after the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem. In 1516, Galilee was included in the area that became the Turkish province of Syria. After World War I, the League of Nations assigned the mandate for Palestine to Great Britain. In 1947, when the General Assembly of the United Nations partitioned Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state, Galilee was included in the Jewish sector and subsequently became part of Israel. In 1952 the Beit Natufa Dam, part of an irrigation system, was constructed here.