Sea of Galilee
Lake Tiberias is located in the north of Palestine, and to the west of the Golan Heights. Its coastline reaches about 53 kilometers, its length is 41 kilometers, and its width is 17 kilometers. Its area is 166 square kilometers, and its maximum depth reaches 46 meters. It has special importance for Palestine.
The reason why Lake Kinneret was given this name
The lake was named after the city of Tiberias. As it was the largest country located on the lake, while Jewish or Hebrew studies indicate that the name comes from (Tiberius Caesar), a Roman army commander, and it is called Galilee in English due to its location on the eastern edge of the Galilee region, and the name Kinneret in Hebrew is related to the location of the city. Kinaret on its coast in ancient times, and Lake Gennesaret due to its proximity to the Gennesar region, which is famous for the royal gardens surrounding the palace of the Roman governor Herod, while the Roman geographer “Pliny” called it “Lake Tarshiha” in reference to the city that was the southern end of the lake.
Origin of Lake Kinneret
The origin of Lake Tiberias dates back to the emergence of the Jordan Valley lakes in the Pleistocene era. The Jordan Valley lakes were connected together in the rainy era, and it was called “the ancient Jordanian lake.” It extended from the current Lake of Galilee north to the south of the Dead Sea, a distance of 30 kilometers, and the area of this lake was about 3.100 square kilometers.
Read also:Where does the Euphrates River flow?The lake was also called “Lake of the Tongue” because of its well-known sediments, but in the upper period of the same era it began to shrink and dry up due to evaporation and lack of water supply due to the drought that struck the region. It lost about 4.030 million cubic meters of water annually. The annual evaporation rate reached 130 cm.
The importance of Lake Kinneret
Lake Kinneret is characterized by many features that make it an important area for the Palestinian people. Its importance is evident in:
- Water collection, as it is a natural reservoir that feeds the Palestinian areas.
- A source of fish wealth; The lake has been famous since ancient times for its abundance and diversity of fish, and scholars have noticed that the fish found in it are the same fish found in the Nile River.
- It attracts tourists from all over the world, in addition to domestic tourism, as the lake is famous for its natural beauty, as it is surrounded by green plains, gorge valleys, cliffs, and mountain slopes. It is also considered a suitable summer resort in the winter due to the warmth of the weather, and it contains hot springs that tourists use to heal from diseases. .
- There is an electrical station on the Al-Majma’ Bridge that uses the water of Lake Tiberias and the water of the Jordan River and the Yarmouk River to generate electrical energy. The lake’s water was connected to the water of the Yarmouk River through a diversionary canal passing through the Yarmouk Triangle, and the Rothenberg Company was the one that obtained the concession to establish all of this from the Mandate. The British invaded Palestine in 1926 AD.
