Lomography

The Sea of Galilee
written by jogintas on August 13th, 2009 , 4 comments (2 votes)

Please activate JavaScript to see this gallery.

It does not matter if you believe in God, or not – the Sea of Galilee is a “strong” place for religion and geography lovers. First of all, let’s take the facts: it is the largest freshwater lake in Israel and, what is more, it is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth (209 meters below sea level). Can you imagine that? Well, if you can go to this place you surely will. This “sea” is about 20 km long and 13 wide, so it takes quiet a huge place on a land of Israel.

This is the place, where a lot of saint and holy things have happened, that is why there are a lot of names for it as well: different sources name it as lake of Gennesaret, lake Kinneret or even sea of Tiberias. The water comes from the river Jordan, and it is believed, that this lake was born, when Africa “moved” from the Arabian plates – this is also something from the science sector. Ok, now let’s move towards the religion theme. This lake is mentioned in the New and Old Testament Bibles. This is the place, where Jesus has done his well known miracles.

This is the place, where Jesus walked on water (well known episode even outside the Christianity); this is also the place, where Jesus recruited four fishermen. Sea of Galilee is also a place of other Jesus’ miracles, like calming the storm and feeding a lot of people with only several fishes. That’s why there are a lot of churches, monasteries and other religious “objects” all over the place, so you can move from on to another, again, using the Bible as a tour book, because it leads you to the right place even after so many years. Believe it or not, this place is somehow mysterious: you feel so easy, calm and relaxed, that you start to imagine those things, that could have happened or have happened 2009 years ago. How can you start ignoring those facts, when the best tour book is the Holy Bible? Well, let’s leave the religion at this point, and move towards the gourmet land. In this lake you can catch a fish, which is called St. Peter’s fish. It’s like a golden fish, but several times bigger than those in our home-aquariums. It is delicious, though I can not describe the taste of it. One thing that does not make it any more delicious is the views, which you can see from the local fish restaurants.

The lake has got a “heavy traffic”, the beaches (if you can call them so) are very dirty, crowded and loud. The only calm and pretty sweet place for a swim was the place of seven springs, one of which is like a small waterfall, making a nice massage for your back, while you put it forwards the running water. But springs are cold, so you can not bath there for an hour… Well, like I said, the Sea of Galilee has got something for everyone: a huge religion, geography, culture and even leisure backpack.