Sea of Galilee

Day 2 in the Galilee region was called the 'Sea of Galilee field trip'. Everywhere we went, we were right on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

Our first stop was Capernaum. Jesus moved there from Nazareth when he began his ministry. Most of the miracles recorded in the Bible that weren’t in Jerusalem took place in Capernaum, or close to it.

When archeologists discovered the ancient city of Capernaum, they found remains of a fourth century synagogue that were built on top of the remains of the first century synagogue. 

It’s possible that this was the synagogue that Jesus taught in.

Here’s the fourth century synagogue.

Archeologists also found remains of a house (right next to the synagogue) that has been worshipped as the house of Peter since the first century. In the first century, they can tell that a church was built over the house. Now, there’s a modern church built over those remains. There’s a glass floor in the church so you can look at the ruins underneath it. For some reason, I forgot to take a picture of this church. Oops. The church looks like a spaceship because it’s a weird shape and it’s raised off the ground to show off the ruins.

Here’s the lovely view of the sea from Capernaum.

Our next stop was the Mount of Beatitudes, which is the supposed location of the Sermon on the Mount. It’s a beautiful place! You can see the Sea of Galilee in the background. There was a pretty Catholic church there.

There were a ton of tourists at Capernaum and the Mount of Beatitudes. We’re used to seeing lots of tourists in Jerusalem, but these places were very crowded with church groups. There were especially a lot of French tourists! I enjoyed eavesdropping on them.

Right around the corner is the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fishes. That’s a mouthful. Here’s the inside of the church.

The most famous part is this mosaic, which is from the 5th century.

Just a few years ago (sometime in the 90s, according to the haircuts of the people in the video they showed us), a first century fishing boat was discovered in the Sea of Galilee. We went to a museum to see it. It’s pretty much perfectly preserved!

After seeing a real boat from Jesus’ time, we got on our own boat to take a ride across the Sea of Galilee.

All of the credit for getting a perfect picture of the flag goes to my friend Kaitlyn.

It was a peaceful ride across the Sea of Galilee. No storms :)