The Sea of Galilee

The Sea of Galilee in northern Israel lies 210 m (about 650 ft) below sea-level and is part of the great Syrian-African Fault, the longest and deepest fault system in the world, stretching from Syria, in the north down through the entire length of the Jordan valley, the Dead Sea, the Gulf of Eilat, the Red Sea, the west Indian Ocean, on into east Africa. Next to the Jordan itself it is one of the most emotive and evocative names known to Man and is inextricably bound up with, and an integral part of the Christian faith and the life and acts of Jesus. Stretching in an arc round its north-west to north east coast - a distance of perhaps 35 km (about 22 miles), are some of the most well-known Christian sites intimately connected with Jesus and those who followed him: Magdala - the traditional birthplace of Mary Magdalene; The Mount of the Beatitudes; the Church of the Feeding of the Multitude; the Primacy of Peter; Capernaum; and last, but not least - Kursi, the traditional site of the casting out of the devil into the Gaderene swine.

Measuring about 26 km from north to south and about 9 km at its widest. 15 major streams, and hundreds of minor tributaries drain into the Kinneret (its Hebrew name). Its catchment area is about 2,735 sq. km. The Sea of Galilee is Israel's only major source of fresh water holding, ideally, 4,000,000,000 cu.m. of water. In recent years, due to a natural increase in industrial, domestic and agricultural use, exacerbated by a steadily decreasing annual precipitation, the level of the Sea of Galilee has been dropping and today is causing considerable concern among conservationists and other authorities.

The Sea of Galilee

"Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds...."
Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard, 1751.

Back