Tiberias
Tiberias (טבריה, Standard Hebrew Təverya, Tiberian Hebrew Ṭəḇeryāh; Arabic طبرية Ṭabariyyah) is a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, Lower Galilee. It was named in honour of the emperor Tiberius.Tiberias was built at about AD 20 by Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, and it became Herod's capital.
During Herod's time, the Jews refused to settle there; the presence of a cemetery rendered the site ritually unclean. However, in time, Tiberias became one of the country's four Holy Cities, a centre of learning and the arts, also the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court, chose it as one of its meeting places.
Under Byzantine and Arab rule, the city declined and was devastated by wars and earthquakes in the Middle Ages. During the crusades it was the central city of the Principality of Galilee in the Kingdom of Jerusalem; the region was sometimes called the Principality of Tiberias, or the Tiberiad. Saladin besieged it during his invasion of the kingdom in 1187, and in October of that year defeated the crusaders at the Battle of Hattin outside the city.
In the 16th century, Suleiman the Magnificent gave it back to the Jews, and Tiberias flourished again for a hundred years. It was devastated again, and again resettled by Hassidic Jews.
Today, Tiberias is Israel's most popular holiday resort in the Northern half of the country.
External links