The Holy Land: Part 4 - Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Tabgha and the Jordan River

A fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee.

One of our days was spent exploring and seeing a lot of the sites around the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberius or the Sea of Kinneret.

We first went to the Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 5 - 7) Like almost every "holy" site we saw, a Roman Catholic Franciscan Church had been built over it. This one was very pretty, had eight sides and was designed to represent the 8 beatitudes that Jesus spoke. The gardens there were also beautiful as was the view of the Sea of Galilee. A few years ago, they tested out the natural acoustics of the area and it was proven that from the garden, a person's voice carried loudly and clearly to the surrounding hills below.

This is the Chapel

This is inside the dome of the chapel.....above are eight stained glass windows. Sunshine lights up each of them showing the beatitudes.

This is where they say Jesus preached The Sermon on the Mount from. The 5,000 people sat on the hills below to hear him. (Matthew 5:1-14) It's truly a natural amphitheater, although hard to see the shape with the trees blocking part of the view.

This is looking at the northern point of the Sea of Galilee.....that haze is actually a duststorm starting to come in.

This is another view of the see, but this time looking directly across to the eastern shore.......that is actually the famously fought over Golan Heights.

Moving on from the Mount of Beatitudes, we went down to Tabgha where there is an old church built on the rocks where Peter and Jesus had breakfast after Jesus told Peter to cast his nets off the other side of the boat. (John 21:1-19)

In recent years, the water has GREATLY receded as the Sea of Galilee is being drained to use the water. The water used to come up to the rocks on the foundation of this church.

This rock is known as Mensa Christ - Christ's Table where he had prepared breakfast for Peter the morning he told him to cast his nets off the other side of the boat, catching 153 fish!

This was by far my favorite spot we visited out of all the places we went. It was very humbling to be able to dip my feet into the same Sea where Jesus performed miracles, taught his disciples to fish for men and calmed the angry waves. It was also one of few places that was not surrounded with religious iconography and tourist junk. Very special. :)

Maude, Liz and I hangin' out at the "Sea of G"! LOL

Here's my token dorky tourist pic for this trip......although it truly was my favorite moment in our trip as I dipped my feet into the Sea of Galilee! :)

Not sure what these guys were doing with tangled nets and no boat.......but they were working hard to untangle them!

Onto Capernaum..........

These are the remains of Peter's house where Jesus came and healed Peter's mother-in-law

These are the remains of the old city.........

Inside the remains of the temple...

Some cool and very old pillars...

This is an oil press!

After seeing a lot of the Galilee region, we drove to Tiberius and ate an excellent meal of "Peter's Fish". It was delicious! Our fish was caught fresh that morning right from the Sea of Galilee. :)

Found my absolute perfect car.......that's right, it's bright green.......was too excited NOT take a picture! LOL No seriously, I want this car.

From a lovely lunch in Galilee, we went to Yardenit, one of the possible sites of Christ's baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.

Some people getting baptized.....

More people getting baptized......although I wouldn't want to go into the water as these lurked in it.......

That would be an otter and a bunch of HUGE catfish.......I would have been scared to go in the water!

A few more posts and all will be up from this trip - Bethlehem pics will be next! :)