scenic viewpoint
Mount Arbel
A cliff dropping 380m to the Sea of Galilee, with fortified caves cut into its face by Jewish rebels and a lookout taking in the whole lake to the Golan. Israel's only base-jumping mountain.
4 km · about 10 min drive
AsiaIsraelNorthern District
Tiberias
Northern District, Israel · Asia
About Tiberias
Tiberias is worth a stop: 10 minutes from H̱amam, 6km from Sea of Galilee.
Tiberias is in Northern District, Israel, with about 45,000 people. You drive on the right here. The nearest town is H̱amam, about 6 km away.
Tiberias ( ty-BEER-ee-əs; Hebrew: טְבֶרְיָה, ; Arabic: طَبَرِيَّا, romanized: Ṭabariyyā) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 18th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Hebron,Read more
and Safed. In 2024, it had a population of 52,123.
Tiberias was founded around 20 CE by Herod Antipas and was named after Roman emperor Tiberius. It became a major political and religious hub of the Jews in the Land of Israel after the destruction of Jerusalem and the desolation of Judea during the Jewish–Roman wars. From the time of the second through the tenth centuries CE, Tiberias was the largest Jewish city in Galilee, and much of the Mishna and the Jerusalem Talmud were compiled there. Tiberias flourished during the Early Muslim period (c. 7th–10th centuries CE), when it served as the capital of Jund al-Urdunn and became a multi-cultural trading center. The city's importance declined in some periods due to earthquake damage and foreign incursions. After the Galilee earthquake of 1837, the city was rebuilt and grew steadily following the First Jewish Aliyah in the 1880s.
During the Ottoman period, Tiberias had a predominantly Muslim population in the early centuries, while from the late Ottoman period, the city became increasingly mixed and at times, had a Jewish majority or plurality. By the late Ottoman and early British Mandate period, it remained a mixed city with significant Jewish, Muslim, and Christian population. By the late Mandatory Palestine period, it had a majority Jewish population, but with a significant Arab community. During the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, fighting broke out between the Jewish residents of Tiberias and its Palestinian Arab minority. As the Haganah 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. After the war ended, the new Israeli authorities destroyed the Old City of Tiberias. 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 and Christianity. 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 its hot springs, believed to cure skin and other ailments, for some two thousand years.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is there to see near Tiberias?
Within an hour or so of Tiberias: Mount Arbel (4 km), Sea of Galilee (6 km), Akko (Acre) (45 km), Rosh HaNikra Grottoes (52 km).
Where is Tiberias?
Tiberias is in Northern District, Israel, about 6 km from H̱amam.
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Quick Information
- Population
- 44,779
- Continent
- Asia
- Country
- Israel
- Region
- Northern District
- Timezone
- Asia/Jerusalem
- Coordinates
- 32.7940, 35.5315
Tags
Worth the detour from Tiberias
5 notable places within an hour's drive.
natural wonder
Sea of Galilee
The largest freshwater lake in Israel, central to Christian scripture and surrounded by important biblical sites including Capernaum and the Mount of Beatitudes.
6 km · about 10 min drive
ancient ruins
Akko (Acre)
A UNESCO-listed Crusader city with remarkably preserved underground knights' halls, Ottoman bazaars, and fortifications on the Mediterranean coast.
45 km · about 50 min drive
natural wonder
Rosh HaNikra Grottoes
Sea-carved tunnels running 200m through white chalk cliffs on the Lebanese border, reached by a cable car advertised as the world's steepest at a 60-degree gradient. The water inside glows electric blue.
52 km · about 60 min drive
castle
Ajloun Castle
A 12th-century Ayyubid castle built by Saladin's general on a hilltop to control the Jordan Valley iron mines and counter Crusader expansion.
55 km · about 65 min drive
Driving roads near Tiberias
- Right hereMount ArbelA cliff dropping 380m to the Sea of Galilee, with fortified caves cut into its face by Jewish rebels and a lookout taking in the whole lake to the Golan. Israel's only base-jumping mountain.
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