In early modern times, Tiberias was amixed city; underBritish rule it had a majority Jewish population, but with a significant Arab community. During the1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, fighting broke out between the Jewish residents of Tiberias and its Palestinian Arab minority. As theHaganah took over, British troops evacuated the entire Palestinian Arab population; they were refused reentry after the war, such that today the city has an almost exclusively Jewish population.[7][8] After the war ended, the new Israeli authorities destroyed the Old City of Tiberias.[9][8] A large number of Jewish immigrants to Israel subsequently settled in Tiberias.
Today, Tiberias is an important tourist center due to its proximity to the Sea of Galilee and religious sanctity to Judaism andChristianity. The city also serves as a regional industrial and commercial center. Its immediate neighbour to the south,Hammat Tiberias, which is now part of modern Tiberias, has been known for itshot springs, believed to cure skin and otherailments, for some two thousand years.[10]
"Rabbi Yirmiya said: [...] And why is it called Tiberias? Because it sits at the navel (tabur) of the Land of Israel".
Rashi, in his commentary, provides two interpretations of the Midrash. The first explains the word"navel" (tabur) as referring to the lowest point in the Land of Israel. The second interpretation suggests that Tiberias is situated at the geographical center of the Land of Israel.Ishtori Haparchi later substantiated this claim through measurements of the entire land, demonstrating its accuracy.[11]
Jewish tradition holds that Tiberias was built on the site of the ancient Israelite village ofRakkath orRakkat, first mentioned in theBook of Joshua.[12][13][14] InTalmudic times, the Jews still referred to it by this name.[15]
Tiberias was founded sometime around 18–20 CE in theHerodian Tetrarchy of Galilee andPerea by the Romanclient kingHerod Antipas, son ofHerod the Great.[12] Herod Antipas made it the capital of his realm in Galilee and named it after theRoman emperorTiberius.[13] The city was built in immediate proximity to a spa which had developed around seventeen natural mineral hot springs,Hammat Tiberias. Tiberias was at first a strictly pagan city, but later became populated mainly by Jews, with its growing spiritual and religious status exerting a strong influence onbalneological practices.[10][dubious –discuss] Conversely, inAntiquities of the Jews, the Roman-Jewish historianJosephus calls the village with hot springs Emmaus, today's Hammat Tiberias, located near Tiberias.[16][citation needed] This name also appears in his workThe Jewish War.[17]
In the days of Herod Antipas, some of the most religiously orthodoxJews, who were struggling against the process ofHellenisation, which had affected even somepriestly groups, refused to settle there: the presence of acemetery rendered the site ritually unclean for the Jews and particularly for the priestlycaste. Antipas settled many non-Jews there from rural Galilee and other parts of his domains in order to populate his new capital, and built a palace on theacropolis.[18][dubious –discuss] The prestige of Tiberias was so great that the Sea of Galilee soon came to be named the Sea of Tiberias; however, the Jewish population continued to call itYam HaKineret, its traditional name.[18] The city was governed by a city council of 600 with a committee of ten until44 CE, when aRoman procurator was set over the city after the death ofHerod Agrippa I.[18] The city is estimated to have had a population between 4,500 and 15,000 during the first century CE.[19]
Tiberias is mentioned inJohn 6:23 as the location from which boats had sailed to the opposite, eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd seekingJesus after the miraculousfeeding of the 5000 used these boats to travel back toCapernaum on the north-western part of the lake.
During theFirst Jewish–Roman War, the Jewish rebels took control of the city and destroyed Herod's palace, and were able to prevent the city from being pillaged by the army ofAgrippa II, the Jewish ruler who had remained loyal to Rome.[18][20] Eventually, the rebels were expelled from Tiberias, and while most other cities in the provinces of Judaea, Galilee andIdumea were razed, Tiberias was spared this fate because its inhabitants had decided not to fight against Rome.[18][21] It became a mixed city after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE; with Judea subdued, the surviving southern Jewish population migrated to Galilee.[22][23]
The Roman-Byzantine southern city gateRemains of Crusader fortress gate with ancient lintel in secondary use
There is no direct indication that Tiberias, as well as the rest of Galilee, took part in theBar Kokhba revolt of 132–136 CE, thus allowing it to continue to exist, despite a heavy economic decline due to the war. Following the expulsion of Jews from Judea after 135 CE, Tiberias and its neighbourSepphoris (Hebrew name: Tzippori) became the major Jewish cultural centres.
According to the Talmud, in 145 CE,RabbiSimeon bar Yochai, who was very familiar with Galilee, hiding there for over a decade, "cleansed the city of ritual impurity",[citation needed] allowing the Jewish leadership to resettle there from the Judea, which they were forced to leave as fugitives. TheSanhedrin, the Jewish court, also fled from Jerusalem during theGreat Jewish Revolt against Rome, and after several attempted moves, in search of stability, eventually settled in Tiberias in about 220 CE.[18][23] It was to be its final meeting place before its disbanding in 425 CE. WhenJohanan bar Nappaha (d. 279) settled in Tiberias, the city became the focus of Jewish religious scholarship in the land and the so-namedJerusalem Talmud was compiled by his school in Tiberias between 230–270 CE.[23] Tiberias' 13 synagogues served the spiritual needs of a growing Jewish population.[18] Tombs of famous rabbisYohanan ben Zakkai,Akiva andMaimonides are also located in the city.
During theByzantine period, Tiberias was incorporated into the province ofPalaestina Secunda.[24] In the 6th century Tiberias was still the seat of Jewish religious learning. In light of this, theLetter of Simeon of Beth Arsham urged the Christians of Palaestina to seize the leaders of Judaism in Tiberias, to put them to the rack, and to compel them to command the Jewish king,Dhu Nuwas, to desist from persecuting the Christians inNajran.[25]
In 614, Tiberias was the site where, during the finalJewish revolt against the Byzantine Empire, parts of the Jewish population supported thePersian invaders; the Jewish rebels were financed byBenjamin of Tiberias, a man of immense wealth; according to Christian sources, during the revolt Christians were massacred and churches destroyed. In 628, the Byzantine army returned to Tiberias upon the surrender of Jewish rebels and the end of the Persian occupation after they were defeated in thebattle of Nineveh. A year later, influenced by radical Christian monks, EmperorHeraclius instigated a wide-scale slaughter of the Jews, which practically emptied Galilee of most its Jewish population, with survivors fleeing to Egypt.[citation needed]
Tiberias, or Tabariyyah in Arab transcription, was "conquered by (the Arab commander)Shurahbil in the year 634/15 [CE/AH] by capitulation; one half of the houses and churches were to belong to the Muslims, the other half to the Christians."[26] Since 636 CE, Tiberias served as the regional capital, untilBeit She'an took its place, following theRashidun conquest.[clarification needed] The Caliphate allowed 70 Jewish families from Tiberias to form the core of a renewed Jewish presence in Jerusalem and the importance of Tiberias to Jewish life declined.[citation needed] The caliphs of theUmayyad Dynasty built one of its square-plan palaces on the waterfront to the north of Tiberias, atKhirbat al-Minya. Tiberias was revitalised in 749, after Bet Shean was destroyed in an earthquake.[citation needed] An imposing mosque, 90 metres (300 feet) long by 78 metres (256 feet) wide, resembling theGreat Mosque ofDamascus, was raised at the foot ofMount Berenice next to a Byzantine church, to the south of the city, as the eighth century ushered in Tiberias's golden age, when the multicultural city may have been the most tolerant of the Middle East.[27] Jewish scholarship flourished from the beginning of the 8th century to the end of the 10th, when the oral traditions ofancient Hebrew, still in use today, were codified. One of the leading members of the TiberianMasoretic community wasAaron ben Moses ben Asher, who refined the oral tradition now known asTiberian Hebrew. Both theCodex Cairensis and theAleppo Codex were written in Tiberias as well as theTiberian vocalization was devised here.
The Arab geographeral-Muqaddasi writing in 985, describes Tiberias as a hedonistic city afflicted by heat: "For two months they dance; for two months they gobble; for two months they swat; for two months they go about naked; for two months they play the reed flute; and for two months they wallow in the mud."[27] As "the capital of Jordan Province, and a city in the Valley of Canaan. ... The town is narrow, hot in summer and unhealthy...There are here eight natural hot baths, where no fuel need be used, and numberless basins besides of boiling water. Themosque is large and fine, and stands in the market-place. Its floor is laid in pebbles, set on stone drums, placed close one to another." According to Muqaddasi, those who suffered from scab or ulcers, and other such diseases came to Tiberias to bathe in the hot springs for three days. "Afterwards they dip in another spring which is cold, whereupon ... they become cured."[28]
Tiberias was plagued by incursions by the radicalShi'iteQarmatians at the beginning of the tenth century. During that period, the Academy of Eretz Israel left Tiberias for Jerusalem. Later in the same century, the region came under the control by theFatimid Caliphate.[5] By this time, Tiberias had experienced its last period of prosperity; dried fruit, oil, and wine had been exported toCairo via theVia Maris, and the city was also known for its mat industry.[5]
In 1033 Tiberias was againdestroyed by an earthquake.[citation needed] A further earthquake in 1066 toppled the great mosque.[27]Nasir-i Khusrou visited Tiberias in 1047, and describes a city with a "strong wall" which begins at the border of the lake and goes all around the town except on the water-side. Furthermore, he describes
numberless buildings erected in the very water, for the bed of the lake in this part is rock; and they have built pleasure houses that are supported on columns ofmarble, rising up out of the water. The lake is very full of fish. [] The Friday Mosque is in the midst of the town. At the gate of the mosque is a spring, over which they have built a hot bath. [] On the western side of the town is a mosque known as the Jasmine Mosque (Masjid-i-Yasmin). It is a fine building and in the middle part rises a great platform (dukkan), where they have theirmihrabs (or prayer-niches). All round those they have setjasmine-shrubs, from which the mosque derives its name.[29]
During theFirst Crusade Tiberias was occupied by theFranks soon after the capture ofJerusalem. The city was given in fief toTancred, who made it his capital of thePrincipality of Galilee in theKingdom of Jerusalem; the region was sometimes called the Principality of Tiberias, or the Tiberiad.[30] In 1099 the original site of the city was abandoned, and settlement shifted north to the present location.[citation needed]St. Peter's Church, originally built by the Crusaders, is still standing today, although the building has been altered and reconstructed over the years.
In the late 12th century Tiberias' Jewish community numbered 50 Jewish families, headed by rabbis,[31] and at that time the best manuscripts of theTorah were said to be found there.[25] In the 12th-century, the city was the subject of negative undertones in Islamic tradition. Ahadith recorded by Ibn Asakir of Damascus (d. 1176) names Tiberias as one of the "four cities of hell."[32] This could have been reflecting the fact that at the time, the town had a notable non-Muslim population.[33]
In 1187,Saladin ordered his sonal-Afdal to send an envoy to CountRaymond of Tripoli requesting safe passage through his fiefdom of Galilee and Tiberias. Raymond was obliged to grant the request under the terms of his treaty with Saladin. Saladin's force leftCaesarea Philippi to engage the fighting force of theKnights Templar. The Templar force was destroyed inthe encounter. Saladin thenbesieged Tiberias; after six days the town fell. On 4 July 1187 Saladin defeated the Crusaders coming to relieve Tiberias at theBattle of Hattin, 10 kilometres (6 miles) outside the city.[34] However, during theThird Crusade, the Crusaders drove the Muslims out of the city and reoccupied it.
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, (Maimonides) also known as Rambam, a leading Jewish legal scholar, philosopher and physician of his period, died in 1204 inEgypt and was later buried in Tiberias. His tomb is one of the city's important pilgrimage sites.Yakut, writing in the 1220s, described Tiberias as a small town, long and narrow. He also describes the "hot salt springs, over which they have builtHammams which use no fuel."
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt's sketch of Tiberias, published in 1822. Burckhardt noted that the a quarter of the population was Jewish, and had originated in Poland, Spain, North Africa and other parts of Syria.[35]Tiberas, 1862
During the 16th century, Tiberias was a small village. Italian RabbiMoses Bassola visited Tiberias during his trip to Palestine in 1522. He said on Tiberias that "it was a big city ... and now it is ruined and desolate". He described the village there, in which he said there were "ten or twelve" Muslim households. The area, according to Bassola, was dangerous "because of the Arabs", and in order to stay there, he had to pay the local governor for his protection.[36]
As theOttoman Empire expanded along the southern Mediterranean coast under SultanSelim I, theReyes Católicos (Catholic Monarchs) began establishingInquisition commissions. ManyConversos, (Marranos andMoriscos) andSephardi Jews fled in fear to the Ottoman provinces, settling at first inConstantinople,Salonika,Sarajevo,Sofia andAnatolia. The Sultan encouraged them to settle in Palestine.[37][38] In 1558, a Portuguese-bornmarrano,Doña Gracia, was granted tax collecting rights in Tiberias and its surrounding villages bySuleiman the Magnificent. She envisaged the town becoming a refuge for Jews and obtained a permit to establish Jewish autonomy there.[39] In 1561 her nephewJoseph Nasi, Lord of Tiberias,[40] encouraged Jews to settle in Tiberias and rebuild the city.[41] Securing afirman from the Sultan, he andJoseph ben Adruth rebuilt the city walls and lay the groundwork for a textile (silk) industry, plantingmulberry trees and urging craftsmen to move there.[41] Plans were made for Jews to move from thePapal States, but when the Ottomans and the Republic of Venice went to war, the plan was abandoned.[41]
At the end of the century (1596), the village of Tiberias had 54 households: 50 families and 4 bachelors. All wereMuslims. The main product of the village at that time was wheat, while other products included barley, fruit, fish, goats and bee hives; the total revenue was 3,360akçe.[42]
In 1624, when the Sultan recognizedFakhr-al-Din II as Lord ofArabistan (from Aleppo to the borders of Egypt),[43] The1660 destruction of Tiberias by theDruze resulted in abandonment of the city by its Jewish community,[44][45] Unlike Tiberias, the nearby city ofSafed recovered from itsdestruction,[46] and was not entirely abandoned,[47] remaining an important Jewish center in Galilee.
"Leaning tower" at SE corner ofZahir al-Umar's walls, part of Greek Orthodox Monastery of the Twelve Apostles
In the 1720s, the Arab rulerZahir al-Umar, of theZaydani clan, fortified the town and made an agreement with the leaderNasif al-Nassar of theAl Saghir clan to prevent looting. Accounts from that time tell of the great admiration people had for Zahir, especially his war against bandits on the roads.Richard Pococke, who visited Tiberias in 1727, witnessed the building of a fort to the north of the city, and the strengthening of the old walls, attributing it to a dispute with the Pasha of Damascus.[48] Under instructions from theOttoman Porte,Sulayman Pasha al-Azm of Damascusbesieged Tiberias in 1742, with the intention of eliminating Zahir, but his siege was unsuccessful. In the following year, Sulayman set out to repeat the attempt with even greater reinforcements, but he died en route.[49]
Jewish house in Tiberias, 1893
Under Zahir's patronage, Jewish families were encouraged to settle in Tiberias.[50] He invited RabbiChaim Abulafia ofSmyrna to rebuild the Jewish community.[51] The synagogue he built still stands today, located in the Court of the Jews.[52][53]
In 1775,Ahmed el-Jazzar "the Butcher" brought peace to the region with an iron fist.[citation needed] In 1780, many Polish Jews settled in the town.[51] During the 18th and 19th centuries it received an influx ofrabbis who re-established it as a center for Jewish learning.[54] An essay written by RabbiJoseph Schwarz in 1850 noted that "Tiberias Jews suffered the least" during an Arab rebellion which took place in 1834.[51] Around 600 people, including nearly 500 Jews,[51] died when the town was devastated by the1837 Galilee earthquake.[citation needed] An American expedition reported that Tiberias was still in a state of disrepair in 1847/1848.[55] Rabbi Haim Shmuel Hacohen Konorti, born in Spain in 1792, settled in Tiberias at the age of 45 and was a driving force in the restoration of the city.[56]
Postcard of Tiberias, byKarimeh Abbud, ca 1925Hot springs in Tiberias 1924, Younes & Soraya Nazrian library, University of Haifa digital collectionsTiberias main road, 1925, Younes & Soraya Library digital collections, University of Haifa
In the1922 census of Palestine conducted by theBritish Mandate authorities, Tiberias had a population of 6,950 inhabitants, consisting of 4,427 Jews, 2,096 Muslims, 422 Christians, and five others.[58] Initially the relationship between Arabs and Jews in Tiberias was good, with few incidents occurring in theNebi Musa riots in 1920 and the Arab riots throughoutPalestine in 1929.[59][60] The first modern spa was built in 1929.[10]
The landscape of the modern town was shaped by the great flood of 11 November 1934. Deforestation on the slopes above the town combined with the fact that the city had been built as a series of closely packed houses and buildings – usually sharing walls – built in narrow roads paralleling and closely hugging the shore of the lake. Flood waters carrying mud, stones, and boulders rushed down the slopes and filled the streets and buildings with water so rapidly that many people did not have time to escape; the loss of life and property was great. The city rebuilt on the slopes and the British Mandatory government planted theSwiss Forest on the slopes above the town to hold the soil and prevent similar disasters from recurring. A new seawall was constructed, moving the shoreline several yards out from the former shore.[61][62] In October 1938, Arab militantsmurdered 19 Jews in Tiberias during the1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine.[63] Between 8–9 April 1948, sporadic shooting broke out between the Jewish and Arab neighborhoods of Tiberias. Arab Liberation Army and irregular forces attacked and closed the Rosh Pinnah road, isolating the northern Jewish settlements.[64] On 10 April, the Haganah launched a mortar barrage, killing some Arab residents.[65] The local National Committee refused the offer of theArab Liberation Army to take over defense of the city, but a small contingent of outside irregulars moved in.[65]
During 10–17 April, the Haganah attacked the city and refused to negotiate a truce, while the British refused to intervene. Newly arrived Arab refugees fromNasir ad-Din told of the civilians there being killed, news which brought panic to the residents of Tiberias.[65] The Arab population of Tiberias (6,000 residents or 47.5% of the population) was evacuated by the British forces on 18 April 1948.[66]
The Jewish population looted the Arab areas and had to be suppressed by force by theHaganah and Jewish police, who killed or injured several looters.[67] On 30 December 1948, whenDavid Ben-Gurion was staying in Tiberias,James Grover McDonald, theUnited States ambassador to Israel, requested to meet with him. McDonald presented a British ultimatum for Israeli troops to leave theSinai peninsula, Egyptian territory. Israel rejected the ultimatum, but Tiberias became famous.[68]
During the months after the occupation of the city, a large part of the buildings of the old city in Tiberias was destroyed, and this for various reasons - problems ofhygiene, rickety construction, and the fear that the Arabs would return to the city, when it became known that this was a requirement ofJordan as part of the negotiations conducted inRhodes. Finally, the authorities acceded to the initiative of theJewish National Fund, Yosef Nahmani, who argued that the houses of the Old City should be demolished, despite the opposition of Mayor Shimon Dahan.
The destruction began in the summer of 1948 and continued until the first months of 1949.[69] A visit byDavid Ben-Gurion to the city brought an end to the destruction, after 477 out of 696 houses were destroyed according to official estimates.[70] After the destruction remained the remains of the wall and the citadel, several houses on the outskirts of the city, as well as the two mosques that operated in the city. The area stood abandoned for decades, until operations began to restore it in the 1970s.[71]
The city of Tiberias has been almost entirely Jewish since 1948. ManySephardic andMizrahi Jews settled in the city, following theJewish exodus from Arab countries in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Over time, government housing was built to accommodate much of the new population, like in many otherdevelopment towns.
In 1959, duringWadi Salib riots, the "Union des Nords-africains led by David Ben Haroush, organised a large-scale procession walking towards the nice suburbs ofHaifa creating little damage but a great fear within the population. This small incident was taken as an occasion to express the social malaise of the differentOriental communities in Israel and riots spread quickly to other parts of the country; mostly in towns with a high percentage of the population having North African origins like in Tiberias, inBeer-Sheva, inMigdal-Haemek".[72]
Over time, the city came to rely on tourism, becoming a major Galilean center forChristian pilgrims and internal Israeli tourism. The ancient cemetery of Tiberias and its old synagogues are also drawing religious Jewish pilgrims during religious holidays.[73]
Tiberias consists of a small port on the shores of Galilee lake for both fishing and tourist activities. Since the 1990s, the importance of the port for fishing was gradually decreasing, with the decline of the Tiberias lake level, due to continuing droughts and increased pumping of fresh water from the lake. It was expected that the lake of Tiberias will regain its original level (almost 6 metres (20 feet) higher than today), with the full operational capacity of Israeli desalination facilities by 2014. In 2020, the lake raised above the level it was in 1990.[74]
In 2012, plans were announced for a new ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, Kiryat Sanz, on a slope on the western side of the Kinneret.[75]
According to theCentral Bureau of Statistics (CBS), as of August 2023, 49,876 inhabitants lived in Tiberias. According to CBS, as of December 2019 the city was rated 4 out of 10 on the socio-economic scale. The average monthly salary of an employee for the year 2019 was 7,508 NIS.[76] Among today's population of Jews, many areMizrahi andSephardic. The yearly growth rate of its population is 3.9%.
Following Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 many ex-South Lebanon Army soldiers and officers who fled from Lebanon settled in Tiberias withtheir families.[77]
In the Ottoman registers of 1525, 1533, 1548, 1553, and 1572 all the residents wereMuslims.[78] The registers in 1596 recorded the population to consist of 50 families and four bachelors, all Muslim.[79] In 1780, there were about 4,000 inhabitants, two thirds being Jews.[80][citation needed] In 1842, there were about 3,900 inhabitants, around a third of whom were Jews, the rest being Muslims and a few Christians.[81] In 1850, Tiberias containedthree synagogues which served theSephardi community, which consisted of 80 families, and theAshkenazim, numbering about 100 families. It was reported that the Jewish inhabitants of Tiberias enjoyed more peace and security than those ofSafed to the north.[82] In 1863, it was recorded that the Christian and Muslim elements made up three-quarters of the population (2,000 to 4,000).[83] A population list from about 1887 showed that Tiberias had a population of about 3,640; 2,025 Jews, 30 Latins, 215 Catholics, 15 Greek Catholics, and 1,355 Muslims.[84] In 1901, the Jews of Tiberias numbered about 2,000 in a total population of 3,600.[25] By 1912, the population reached 6,500. This included 4,500 Jews, 1,600 Muslims and 400 Christians.[85]
In the1922 census of Palestine conducted by theBritish Mandate authorities, Tiberias had a population of 6,950 inhabitants, consisting of 4,427 Jews, 2,096 Muslims, 422 Christians, and five others.[58] There were 5,381 Jews, 2,645 Muslims, 565 Christians and ten others in the1931 census.[86] By 1945, the population had increased to 6,000 Jews, 4,540 Muslims, 760 Christians with ten others.[87]
During the1948 Arab-Israeli War, Palestinian Arab residents of Tiberias besieged its Jewish quarter.Haganah troops then successfully attacked the Arab section of the city, and British troops evacuated the Arab residents upon their request.[88] Some fled in the wake of news of theDeir Yassin massacre.[89] The entire Arab population of the city was removed in 1948 by the British and partly because ofHaganah decision.[90] After the war had ended, a large number of Jewish immigrants to Israel settled in Tiberias.[88] Today almost all of the population is Jewish. In 2022, 93.3% of the population was Jewish and 6.7% was counted as other.[91]
Ancient and medieval Tiberias was destroyed by a series of devastating earthquakes, and much of what was built after the major earthquake of 1837 was destroyed or badly damaged in the great flood of 1934. Houses in the newer parts of town, uphill from the waterfront, survived. In 1949, 606 houses, comprising almost all of the built-up area of the old quarter other than religious buildings, were demolished over the objections of local Jews who owned about half the houses.[92] Wide-scale development began after theSix-Day War, with the construction of a waterfront promenade, open parkland, shopping streets, restaurants and modern hotels. Carefully preserved were several churches, including one with foundations dating from the Crusader period, the city's two Ottoman-era mosques, and severalancient synagogues.[93] The city's old masonry buildings constructed of local black basalt with white limestone windows and trim have been designated historic landmarks. Also preserved are parts of the ancient wall, the Ottoman-era citadel, historic hotels,Christian pilgrim hostels, convents and schools.
A 2,000 year-old Roman theatre was discovered 15 metres (49 feet) under layers of debris and refuse at the foot of Mount Bernike south of modern Tiberias. It once seated over 7,000 people.[94]
In 2004, excavations in Tiberias conducted by theIsrael Antiquities Authority uncovered a structure dating to the 3rd century CE that may have been the seat of theSanhedrin. At the time it was called Beit Hava'ad.[95]
In June 2018, an underground Jewish mausoleum was discovered. Archaeologists said that the mausoleum was between 1,900 to 2,000 years old as of 2018. The names of the dead were inscribed on the ossuaries inGreek.[96]
In January 2021, the foundations of a mosque dating to the earliest years of Muslim rule was excavated just south of the Sea of Galilee by archaeologists led by Katia Cytryn-Silverman from theHebrew University of Jerusalem. Built around 670 CE, it is considered to have been the first purpose-built mosque in the city.[97][98]
Tiberias is located on the shore of theSea of Galilee and the western slopes of theJordan Rift Valley overlooking the lake, in the elevation range of −200 to 200 metres (−660–660 feet). Tiberias has ahot semi-arid climate (Köppen:BSh) that borders ahot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen:Csa), with an annual precipitation of 437.1 mm (17.21 in). Summers in Tiberias average a maximum temperature of 38 °C (100 °F) and a minimum temperature of 25 °C (77 °F) in July and August. The winters are mild, with temperatures ranging from 10 to 18 °C (50–64 °F). Extremes have ranged from 0 °C (32 °F) to 48 °C (118 °F).
Climate data for Tiberias, Israel (1981–2010 normals),
Tiberias has been severely damaged by earthquakes since antiquity. Earthquakes are known to have occurred in 30, 33, 115, 306,363, 419, 447, 631–32 (aftershocks continued for a month), 1033, 1182, 1202, 1546,1759,1837, 1927 and 1943.[100]
TheScots Hotel in the restored former hospital of Dr Torrance
In 1885, a Scottish doctor and minister, David Watt Torrance, opened a mission hospital in Tiberias that accepted patients of all races and religions.[102] In 1894, it moved to larger premises at Beit abu Shamnel abu Hannah. David Watt Torrance died in Tiberias in 1923. The same year his son, Dr. Herbert Watt Torrance, was appointed head of the hospital. In 1949, following the establishment of the State of Israel, it became a maternity hospital supervised by theIsraeli Department of Health. After its closure in 1959, the building became a guesthouse until 1999, when it was renovated and reopened as theScots Hotel.[103][104][105]
Poria hospital is located near Upper Tiberias neighborhood, and operates a hospitalization control center in the city itself.
Tiberia due to its pictureque settings and its mix of water and mountain has attracted numerous artists throughout the years. The painterShimshon Holzman did several water colours of the city which he compiled into an exhibition and set up a studio in Tiberias in 1950.[106][107] In 2010 a sculpture museum was opened in Tiberias.[108]
Its firstfootball club established in 1925 wasMaccabi Tiberias, but folded in the 1990s after financial difficulties.
Hapoel Tiberias represented the city in thetop division of football for several seasons in the 1960s and 1980s, but eventually dropped into the regional leagues and folded due to financial difficulties.
Following Hapoel's demise, a new club,Ironi Tiberias, was established, which currently plays inLiga Leumit.
TheTiberias Marathon is an annual road race held along the Sea of Galilee in Israel with a field in recent years of approximately 1000 competitors. The course follows an out-and-back format around the southern tip of the sea, and was run concurrently with a 10k race along an abbreviated version of the same route. In 2010 the 10k race was moved to the afternoon before the marathon. At approximately 200 metres (660 feet) belowsea level, this is the lowest course in the world.
^abcdefHirschfeld, Y. (2007). Post-Roman Tiberias: between East and West.Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium: Byzantium, Pliska, and the Balkans,5, p. 193–204.
^Conder and Kitchener (1881), SWP I, p.419-420 "The Sanhedrin, after several removes, came to Tiberias about the middle of the second century, under the celebrated Rabbi Judah Hakkodesh, and from this time Tiberias became the central point of Jewish learning for several centuries. It was here that both the Mishna and the Gemara were compiled."
^abRabinowitz, Dan; Monterescu, Daniel (1 May 2008)."Reconfiguring the "Mixed Town": Urban Transformations of Ethnonational Relations in Palestine and Israel".International Journal of Middle East Studies.40 (2):195–226.doi:10.1017/S0020743808080513.ISSN1471-6380.S2CID162633906.The first mixed town forcibly emptied of its Palestinian residents was Tiberias, the 5,770 Palestinian inhabitants of which were driven out – mostly on buses – on 16 and 17 April 1948, when the town was taken by Jewish Hagana forces. ... In Tiberias, the demise of the Palestinian community was coupled in early 1949 with mass destruction of their old properties. By March the Israeli army had blown up and bulldozed 477 of the 696 buildings in the old city,&S
^Abbasi, Mustafa (2008). "The War on the Mixed Cities: The Depopulation of Arab Tiberias and the Destruction of Its Old, 'Sacred' City (1948–9)".Holy Land Studies.7 (1). Edinburgh University Press:45–80.doi:10.3366/e1474947508000061.ISSN1474-9475.
^abJohn Everett Heath,The Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names (Oxford 2017) gives the date 18 CE in the entry for Tiberias. Geoffrey Bromiley in theInternational Standard Bible Encyclopedia Vol 2, 1979 gives the date 20 CE. They both say it was built where the village of Rakkat used to be.
^Josephus, Flavius,The Jewish Wars, translated by William Whiston, Book 4, chapter 1, paragraph 3
^abcdefgMercer Dictionary of the Bible Edited by Watson E. Mills, Roger Aubrey Bullard, Mercer University Press, (1998)ISBN0-86554-373-9 p 917
^Reed, Jonathan L. (2002).Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus: a re-examination of the evidence. Harrisburg, Pa: Trinity Press International. p. 82.ISBN978-1-56338-394-6.
^Crossan, John Dominic (1999)Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Christ. Continuum International Publishing Group,ISBN0-567-08668-2, p 232
^Wilson, John Francis. (2004) Caesarea Philippi: Banias, the Lost City of Pan I.B.Tauris,ISBN1-85043-440-9 p 148
^Burckhardt, John Lewis (2004) [1822].Travels in Syria and the Holy Land. Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa. J. Murray.ISBN9781414283388.Archived from the original on 18 May 2021. Retrieved17 September 2020.There are about four thousand inhabitants in Tabaria, one-fourth of whom are Jews… The Jews of Tiberias occupy a quarter on the shore of the lake in the middle of the town, which has lately been considerably enlarged by the purchase of several streets: it is separated from the rest of the town by a high wall, and has only one gate of entrance, which is regularly shut at sunset, after which no person is allowed to pass. There are one hundred and sixty, or two hundred families, of which forty or fifty are of Polish origin, the rest are Jews from Spain, Barbary, and different parts of Syria.
^Joel Rappel, History of Eretz Israel from Prehistory up to 1882 (1980), Vol.2, p.531. 'In 1662 Sabbathai Sevi arrived to Jerusalem. It was the time when the Jewish settlements of Galilee were destroyed by the Druze: Tiberias was completely desolate and only a few of former Safed residents had returned..."
^Barnay, Y. The Jews in Palestine in the eighteenth century: under the patronage of the Istanbul Committee of Officials for Palestine (University of Alabama Press 1992)ISBN978-0-8173-0572-7 p. 149
^Sidney Mendelssohn.The Jews of Asia: Especially in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century. (1920) p.241. "Long before the culmination of Sabbathai's mad career, Safed had been destroyed by the Arabs and the Jews had suffered severely, while in the same year (1660) there was a great fire in Constantinople in which they endured heavy losses ..."
^Gershom Gerhard Scholem (1976-01-01).Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626–1676. Princeton University Press. p. 368.ISBN978-0-691-01809-6. "In Safed, too, the [Sabbatai] movement gathered strength during the autumn of 1665. The reports about the utter destruction, in 1662 [sic], of the Jewish settlement there seem greatly exaggerated, and the conclusions based on them are false. ... Rosanes' account of the destruction of the Safed community is based on a misunderstanding of his sources; the community declined in numbers but continued to exist."
^The Jews in Palestine in the Eighteenth Century: Under the Patronage of the Istanbul Committee of Officials for Palestine, Y. Barnay, translated by Naomi Goldblum, University of Alabama Press, 1992, p. 15, 16
^The Jews: Their History, Culture, and Religion, Louis Finkelstein, Edition: 3 Harper, New York, 1960, p. 659
^Parfitt, Tudor (1987)The Jews in Palestine, 1800–1882. Royal Historical Society studies in history (52). Woodbridge: Published for the Royal Historical Society by Boydell
^Sasson, Avi, Roy Marom and Saleh Kharanbeh. "Bayyarat al-Khuri: An Ecclesiastical Agricultural Estate in Caesarea, Israel."Palestine Exploration Quarterly (2025).https://doi.org/10.1080/00310328.2025.2515756
^Śegev, Tom (2001).One Palestine, complete: Jews and Arabs under the British mandate. An Owl book (1. Owl Books ed.). New York: Holt.ISBN978-0-8050-6587-9.
^Cohen, Hillel (2015).Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929. The Schusterman series in Israel studies. Translated by Watzman, Haim. Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press.ISBN978-1-61168-812-2.
^Mandated landscape: British imperial rule in Palestine, 1929–1948, Roza El-Eini, (Routledge, 2006) p. 250
^The Changing Land: Between the Jordan and the Sea: Aerial Photographs from 1917 to the Present, Benjamin Z. Kedar, Wayne State University Press, 2000, p. 198
^Harry Levin,Jerusalem Embattled – A diary of a city under siege. Cassel, 1997.ISBN0-304-33765-X., p.81: 'Extraordinary news from Tiberias. The whole Arab population has fled. Last night the Haganah blew up the Arab bands' headquarters there; this morning the Jews woke up to see a panic flight in progress. By tonight not one of the 6,000 Arabs remained.' (19 April).
^Lewis, Bernard (1954), Studies in the Ottoman archives—I,Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 16, pp 469–501.
Avi-Yonah, M. (2002).The Holy Land: A Historical Geography from the Persian to the Arab conquest, 536 B.C. to A.D. 640.Carta Jerusalem.ISBN965-220-502-8.
Department of Statistics (1945).Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved27 November 2016.
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