Lake Tiberias

Lake Tiberias or Sea of Galilee (Hebrew Yam Kinneret), freshwater lake, north-eastern Israel. The River Jordan flows through the lake. It is pear-shaped, with a length from north to south of 23 km (14 mi), a maximum width near the north of 13 km (8 mi), and a maximum depth of 46 m (150 ft); it covers about 166 sq km (64 sq mi). The lake lies 207 m (680 ft) below the level of the Mediterranean Sea, and its bed forms a part of the great Rift Valley. During a former geological epoch the lake was part of a great inland sea extending from the Hula marshes in northern Israel to a point some 64 km (40 mi) south of the Dead Sea.

An important tourist attraction, the lake is completely encircled by a beach, bordered by escarpments on the east and south-west and by plains on the north and north-west. The water of Lake Tiberias is cool and clear; a prime fishing site, it contains many varieties of fish, notably sardines and tilapia, which are caught on a commercial scale. The grebe, gull, pelican, and other kinds of birds are abundant; the tortoise, turtle, crayfish, and the small crustacean known as the beach flea are found along the banks.

In the past, the vicinity of Lake Tiberias was well populated, and several of the great trade routes of Asia Minor converged at the lake. Nine cities flourished on its shores, and it was the centre of an extensive fishing industry. Of the biblical towns only Tiberias, on the western shore, still exists. Scholars have settled on the banks of the lake since AD 19 because it was known as a centre of Jewish learning. Of historical significance is the compilation of the Talmud, the body of Jewish civil and religious law, assembled in Tiberias between the 3rd and 5th centuries.

Lake Tiberias is best known for its association with the lives of Christ and his disciples. In the Bible the lake is referred to as the Sea of Chinnereth or Chinneroth, Gennesar, Lake of Gennesaret, Sea of Galilee, and Sea of Tiberias, a name that has survived in the modern Arabic Bahrat Tabariye.