Sea of Galilee

Sea of Galilee, lake in Israel through which the Jordan River flows. It is famous for its biblical associations; its Old Testament name was Sea of Chinnereth, and later it was called the Lake of Gennesaret. From 1948 to 1967 it was bordered immediately to the northeast by the cease-fire line with Syria.

Physical features

The lake has a surface area of 64 square miles (166 square km). Its maximum depth, measured in the northeast, is 157 feet (48 metres). Extending 13 miles (21 km) from north to south and 7 miles (11 km) from east to west, it is pear-shaped. Its surface elevation was long given as 686 feet (209 metres) below sea level, but for decades the annual water level generally has been 6.5 to 13 feet (2 to 4 metres) below the traditional level.

The Sea of Galilee is located in the great depression of the Jordan. The Plain of Gennesaret extends in a circular arc from the north to the northwest, and the Plain of Bet Ẓayda (Buteiha) in Syria extends to the northeast. To the west and southwest, the hills of Lower Galilee fall abruptly to the lake’s edge. In the mid-eastern sections, the cliffs of the Golan Heights overlook the lake. The plateau reappears again in the southeast, becoming larger as it approaches the valley of the Yarmūk River, a tributary that has its confluence with the Jordan a short distance to the south of the lake. Also to the south, the plain of the Ghawr (Ghor) begins, but the Sea of Galilee is separated from it by a narrow ridge through which the Jordan River flows.

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Water and its Varying Forms

The greatest part of the region is covered by basalts that have been formed since the Miocene Epoch (about 23 to 5.3 million years ago) and that are part of the vast area of Mount Durūz, located in Syria. Since the Miocene Epoch began, lacustrine limestones and marls (calcareous clays) have been deposited. The Jordan Valley is part of the East African Rift System, which forms the deep trench through which a tributary of the Jordan River passes to the east of the lake. Smaller and less-important faults occur to the west. The depression was hollowed out at the end of the Pliocene Epoch (about 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago) and was partially filled in again by lacustrine and fluvial sediments. During the humid periods of the Quaternary Period (the past 2.6 million years), the Dead Sea extended up to this point. During the last pluvial period, about 20,000 years ago, a great lake called the Lake of Lisan covered the region. Since then the waters have receded.

Because of its sheltered location, low elevation, and the influence of the lake itself, the winters are mild, with temperatures averaging 57 °F (14 °C) in January. The absence of freezing temperatures has facilitated the cultivation of bananas, dates, citrus fruit, and vegetables. The summers are hot, with temperatures averaging 88 °F (31 °C), and the precipitation—almost 15 inches (380 mm) at Deganya—falls, in the course of a winter of less than 50 days, in the form of brief but violent showers.

The Sea of Galilee is fed primarily by the Jordan River. Other streams and wadis (seasonal watercourses) flow into the lake from the hills of Galilee. In the rivers associated with the lake and at the bottom of the lake itself are many mineral deposits. Because of those deposits and because of the strong evaporation, the lake’s waters are relatively salty.

The fish life of the Sea of Galilee has an affinity with that of the East African lakes. Fish species to be found include damselfish, scaleless blennies, catfish, mouthbreeders, and barbels.

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Human imprint

Because of a pleasant climate, level topography, fertile soil, and relatively abundant water, the rivers flowing into the lake and the adjacent plains have throughout history been the source of livelihood for various peoples. At El-ʿUbeidīya, 2 miles (3 km) south of the lake, lacustrine formations dating from about 400,000 to 500,000 years ago have revealed prehistoric tools and two human fragments, which are among the oldest in the Middle East. Canaanite (ancient Palestinian) structures have been uncovered that date to between 1000 and 2000 bce.

In the 1st century ce the region was rich and populated. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus wrote of nine cities on the shores of the lake in ancient times, but of those only Tiberias has survived. Tiberias, on the western shore, was one of the four Jewish holy cities, and Kefar Naḥum (ancient Capernaum), near the northwestern shore, has preserved one of the most beautiful synagogues of the Galilee region, dating from the 2nd and 3rd centuries ce. A sanctuary for the Druze (an independent sect founded in the 11th century with a creed containing elements of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity) is located near Kefar Ḥittim near the western shore.

The Sea of Galilee is especially well known to Christians because it was the scene of many episodes in the life of Jesus Christ, including his Sermon on the Mount, at which he first gave the blessings of the Beatitudes and first taught the Lord’s Prayer. The region was also the site of the first Jewish kibbutz, Deganya, established in 1909.

For the past few centuries the Plain of Gennesaret, to the northwest, and the area around Deganya, to the south, have been systematically developed through irrigation and intensive agricultural techniques. Fishing has also been developed, notably from Tiberias and Gennesaret and at En Gev, on the eastern shore. Significant catches of fish are netted annually from motorboats and trawlers; sardines are mainly caught in winter, though, together with larger fish, they are also caught at other seasons. Thermal springs have enabled modern health resorts to be created, and the baths at Tiberias are among Israel’s most important winter resort attractions. Similar baths are to be found at Tabigha, or ʿEn Shevaʿ (the seven springs of Bathsheba), on the northwest shore.

In the 1960s the Sea of Galilee became the starting point of the National Water Carrier (also called Kinneret-Negev Conduit), a canal that conveys water from the Jordan River to Israel’s densely populated coastal region as well as south to the Negev desert. The water is pumped by pipe to the northwest to a height some 800 feet (240 metres) above the lake’s level, and from there it is siphoned across the gorges of Naḥal ʿAmmud and Ẕalmon. Another pumping station lifts the water to the height of the Bet Netofa valley, and from a reservoir there the water is carried by pipe to irrigate the country’s western sector.