Sea of Galilee

The Sea of Galilee resp. according to the Loccum Guidelines Sea Gennesaret, also Sea Gennessaret or Sea Genesareth (Hebrew ים כנרת Jam Kinneret; Aramaic יַמּא דטבריא; גִּנֵּיסַר; Arabic بحيرة طبريا Buhajrat Tabarijja) is located in northern Israel in the upper Jordan Rift Valley, the northern continuation of the Great African Rift Valley.

At 212 metres below sea level, the lake is the lowest freshwater lake on earth. After the Dead Sea (around 420 meters below sea level), it is the second lowest standing body of water on earth.

Designations

Other names in German are Galilean Sea, Lake of Tiberias or Lake Tiberias. At Graetz and elsewhere it is also called Harfensee. A popular explanation of the name claims that the Hebrew name ים כנרת Jam Kinneret means "harp sea" (from kinnor, harp), after the shape resembling a harp. In fact, the name derives from the most important Bronze Age city on the shore of the lake, Phoenician Kinneret, located to the northwest.

The Arabic name بحيرة طبريا / Buḥayrat Ṭabariyā or بحر طبريا / Baḥr Ṭabariyā means "Lake of Tiberias" or "Sea of Tiberias" respectively. In the Middle Ages, the Arabs called the lake "Sea of Minya", after the then important Umayyad site of Khirbet Minya. Thus, the rule holds that throughout its history the lake was usually named after the most important settlement on its shore.

History

To the northwest of the lake, remains of the city of Kinneret, known from Egyptian lore, were found, dated by researchers to the Middle and Later Bronze Ages. To the west, the late ancient synagogue of Chorvat Kur was discovered. The Sea of Galilee lies on the former Roman road Via Maris, which connected Egypt with the more northern Roman provinces.

In 1909, Jewish pioneers built the first collective rural settlement in Israel, Kibbutz Degania Aleph. In October 1917, the Central Powers established a small naval detachment, which had a motorboat and a lighter.

Today, the Sea of Galilee is a very popular holiday destination. Because of its many historical and spiritual sites, about one million local and foreign tourists visit the lake each year. In the 1980s and 1990s, the German biblical archaeologist Volkmar Fritz led excavations at the lake.