The Sea of Galilee — the Kinneret, as Israelis call it — is one of the most meaningful lakes in the world. According to the Gospels, it was on its shores that Jesus preached, recruited his fishermen disciples, calmed the storm and multiplied the loaves and fishes. That is why it draws Christian pilgrims from all over the planet, but it is also a place of serene beauty: a sheet of fresh water surrounded by green hills, fields, palm trees and villages, more than 200 metres below sea level.
It is not a sea but the lowest freshwater lake on Earth, shaped like a harp (hence its Hebrew name, Kinneret), and it matters in two ways: spiritually and as a water source, since it is Israel's largest freshwater reservoir. Around its shores you will find the great Gospel sites of the north — Capernaum, the Mount of Beatitudes, Tabgha — together with nature reserves, beaches, wineries and kibbutzim that make the area a well-rounded destination.
This guide shows you how to explore the lake: which Christian sites to see and in what order, how to get between them, where to swim, which boat trips are worth it and how to combine pilgrimage with the nature and good food of Galilee. It is a region with a strong religious charge; we cover it with facts, context and respect for the different traditions, without taking sides.
The Sea of Galilee is a lake of tectonic origin, set in the great Jordan Valley fault, and it has been home to human life since prehistoric times: settlements tens of thousands of years old have been found on its shores. In antiquity, its fish-rich waters supported towns such as Capernaum, Magdala, Bethsaida and Chorazin. In the 1st century AD, according to the Gospels, the lake was the heart of the public life of Jesus of Nazareth: there he called his first disciples, local fishermen, and Christian tradition places several of his best-known episodes there. After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (70 AD), the region became a centre of rabbinic Judaism, with Tiberias at its head. Over the centuries, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders and Ottomans left their mark on its shores. Today the Kinneret is at once a sacred place, the country's great freshwater reservoir and a destination for nature and relaxation. All of that history is covered in detail on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The green hills of Galilee and its great lake, cradle of early Christianity and a Jewish refuge after the fall of the Temple, with the Crusader port of Acre and multicultural Haifa.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Strictly speaking, the Sea of Galilee is a lake, and a very unusual one: the lowest freshwater lake on Earth, with its surface sitting somewhere between about 209 and 215 metres below sea level. Israelis call it Kinneret, a name that comes from the Hebrew word 'kinor' (harp or lyre), because its outline recalls the shape of that instrument. In ancient texts and in the Gospels it appears under several names: Lake of Gennesaret, Lake of Tiberias, Sea of Galilee.
Its origin is tectonic: the lake sits in the great Rift Valley fault, the same geological fracture that forms the Jordan Valley and runs down to the Dead Sea and beyond, towards Africa. It measures about 21 kilometres long by 13 wide, and its maximum depth is around 43 metres. It is fed mainly by the Jordan River, which enters from the north and leaves from the south, and by springs, some of them hot, that rise along its shores.
That sunken position among the hills gives it a warm climate almost all year round and a particular atmosphere: still mornings, and afternoons that can bring sudden winds down from the Golan, strong enough to whip up waves in minutes. That is exactly what happens in the Gospel story of the calming of the storm. All around, green slopes, fields, palm trees and villages complete a landscape that has drawn people here since prehistoric times.
The shores of the Kinneret have been inhabited since very remote times: remains of settlements tens of thousands of years old have been found in the area, such as the Ohalo site, which documents the life of hunter-gatherers at the end of the last Ice Age. Much later, in biblical and Greco-Roman times, the lake filled up with villages that lived off its rich fishing grounds and the trade routes that crossed Galilee.
In the 1st century AD, the area around the lake was a densely populated region, with a mix of Jewish population and Greco-Roman influence. Towns flourished along its shores, such as Capernaum, Bethsaida, Chorazin, Magdala (famous for its salted-fish industry) and, above all, the brand-new Tiberias, founded around the year 20 by Herod Antipas. Fishing was a key industry: boats like the one found at Ginosar crossed the lake in search of the species that still make the area famous today.
The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who commanded forces in Galilee during the revolt against Rome (66-70 AD), left descriptions of the region's fertility and of the battles fought on the lake and along its shores. After the Jewish defeat and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, Galilee became the new heart of Judaism, and synagogues flourished along its shores. Their ruins, such as the one at Capernaum, can still be visited.
For Christianity, no landscape is as central as this lake. According to the Gospels, it was on the shores of the Sea of Galilee that Jesus of Nazareth spent much of his public life. There, by the water, he called his first disciples: the fishermen Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew, and the brothers James and John, with the famous line that he would make them 'fishers of men'.
Christian tradition places many of the best-known episodes of the Gospel accounts around the lake: the Sermon on the Mount, with the Beatitudes, on the hill we now call the Mount of Beatitudes; the multiplication of the loaves and fishes at Tabgha; the teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum; and miracles such as the calming of the storm, the walking on water and the miraculous catch of fish. Capernaum appears as Jesus's base of operations in Galilee, so much so that it is called 'his own city'.
Those accounts turned the lake and its villages into a pilgrimage destination from the earliest centuries of Christianity. As early as the Byzantine period (4th-6th centuries), churches were built over the venerated sites, and some of them left mosaics that survive today, such as the one at Tabgha showing the basket of loaves and the two fish. It is worth remembering that the exact location of many of these episodes rests on tradition rather than on direct archaeological evidence; even so, together they form one of the most revered sacred landscapes in the world, and today it welcomes Christians of every denomination.
After the Roman period, the shores of the Kinneret followed the rise and fall of the great empires of the Near East. Under Byzantine rule, the region was prosperous and Christian, with churches and monasteries. With the spread of Islam in the 7th century, it passed into the hands of the Arab caliphates; Tiberias remained an important city and the lake's hot springs kept their fame, although a devastating earthquake in 749 destroyed much of the area's buildings.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, Galilee was the stage for the struggles between Crusaders and Muslims for control of the Holy Land. Very close to the lake, at the Horns of Hattin, one of the decisive battles of that era took place in 1187: Sultan Saladin defeated the Crusader army there, a blow that opened his way to retaking Jerusalem. Control of the shores and their water sources was strategic, and the towns changed hands several times.
Under Ottoman rule (from the 16th century), the region went through calmer centuries and, on the whole, a certain decline, with Tiberias as its main centre. The population along the shores was mostly rural, living from farming and fishing. For the Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities of the area, the lake remained a source of life and a place charged with religious memory, although large-scale pilgrimage and modern development would only arrive from the 19th century onwards and, above all, in the 20th.
In modern Israel, the Sea of Galilee plays a role that goes far beyond religion: it is the country's largest freshwater reservoir and a central piece of its water security. For decades, much of Israel's drinking water was pumped from the Kinneret through the National Water Carrier. The lake's level is watched very closely: in drought years it has dropped to alarming figures, putting its water quality at risk, while rainy winters bring it back. In recent times, the growth of seawater desalination and projects to replenish the lake have partly changed that dependence.
Today several worlds live side by side along its shores. The kibbutzim and moshavim, farming communities founded in the 20th century, cultivate the fertile land of the valley, producing fruit, dates, olive oil and wine, and many have added rural tourism. Christian pilgrims come from all over the world to visit the Gospel sites and sail on the lake. And Israeli families and tourists enjoy its freshwater beaches, campsites, nature reserves and water sports.
The Kinneret also lies in a geographically sensitive region, close to the northern borders: Lebanon and the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967 and annexed by Israel in a move not recognised by much of the international community. The security situation can change depending on the context, so it is a good idea to check official sources. Even so, the lake still offers what it always has: a stretch of water among hills, steeped in history and faith, where the landscape described in the Gospels remains surprisingly recognisable two thousand years later.
