View source for Tiberias

{{Short description|City in northern Israel}}
{{Distinguish|Tiberius}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox settlement
| name               = Tiberias
| native_name        = {{native name|he|טבריה|italics=off}}<br />{{native name|ar|طبريا|italics=off}}
| settlement_type    = [[List of cities in Israel|City]]
| translit_lang1     = Hebrew
| translit_lang1_type3 = Also spelled
| translit_lang1_info3 = Tveria, Tveriah (unofficial)
| image_skyline      = 92250 tiberias PikiWiki Israel.jpg
| image_caption      = View of Tiberias
| image_flag         = Flag of Tiberias, Israel.svg
| image_blank_emblem = [[File:Coat of Arms of Tiberias.svg|60px]]
| blank_emblem_type  = Coat of arms
| pushpin_map_alt    = 
| pushpin_map        = Israel north haifa#Israel
| pushpin_mapsize    = 250
| pushpin_label_position = left
| pushpin_map_caption = 
| coordinates        = {{coord|32|47|40|N|35|32|00|E|region:IL|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
| grid_name          = Grid&nbsp;position
| grid_position      = 201/243 [[Palestine grid|PAL]]
| subdivision_type   = [[List of sovereign states|Country]]
| subdivision_name   = {{ISR}}
| subdivision_type1  = 
| subdivision_name1  = 
| subdivision_type2  = [[Districts of Israel|District]]
| subdivision_name2  = [[Northern District (Israel)|Northern]]
| subdivision_type3  = Subdistrict
| subdivision_name3  = [[Kinneret Subdistrict|Kinneret]]
| established_title  = Founded
| established_date   = 1200 BCE <small>(Biblical [[Rakkath]])</small><br />20 CE <small>(Herodian city)</small>
| government_type    = [[Mayor–council government|Mayor–council]]
| governing_body     = Municipality of Tiberias
| leader_title       = Mayor
| leader_name        = {{ill|Yossi Naba'a|he|יוסי נבעה}}<ref name= elect24>{{cite news |title= תוצאות הבחירות המקומיות 2024 |language=he |newspaper= TheMarker |date= 2024-03-03 |url= https://www.themarker.com/news/2024-02-28/ty-article-static/0000018d-bb60-dd5e-a59d-fff234410000 |access-date= 2024-05-07}}</ref>
| unit_pref          = dunam
| area_total_dunam   = {{formatnum:10872|R}}
| population_footnotes = {{Israel populations|reference}}
| population_total   = {{Israel populations|Tiberias}}
| population_as_of   = {{Israel populations|Year}}
| population_density_km2 = auto
| demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
| demographics1_footnotes = {{Israel populations|reference}}
| demographics1_title1 = [[Israeli Jews|Jews and others]]
| demographics1_info1 = 98.5%
| demographics1_title2 = [[Arab citizens of Israel|Arabs]]
| demographics1_info2 = 1.5%
| timezone1          = [[Israel Standard Time|IST]]
| utc_offset1        = +2
| timezone1_DST      = [[Israel Summer Time|IDT]]
| utc_offset1_DST    = +3
| blank_name_sec1    = Name meaning
| blank_info_sec1    = City of [[Tiberius]]
| website            = [http://www.tiberias.muni.il/ www.tiberias.muni.il]
}}
 
'''Tiberias''' ({{IPAc-en|t|aɪ|ˈ|b|ɪər|i|ə|s}} {{respell|ty|BEER|ee|əs}}; {{langx|he|טבריה}}, {{Audio|Tverya.ogg|''Ṭəveryā''|help=no}}; {{langx|ar|طبريا|Ṭabariyyā}})<ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of Tiberias {{!}} Dictionary.com |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/tiberias |access-date=2023-05-11 |website=www.dictionary.com |language=en}}</ref> 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 16th century one of [[Judaism]]'s [[Four Holy Cities]], along with [[Jerusalem]], [[Hebron]], and [[Safed]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Palestine, Holiness of |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=32&letter=P#176#ixzz0RkYTWcVv |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111014125505/http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=32&letter=P#176 |archive-date=2011-10-14 |access-date=2009-09-21 |website=Jewish Encyclopedia}}</ref> In {{Israel populations|Year}} it had a population of {{Israel populations|Tiberias}}.{{Israel populations|reference}}

Tiberias was founded around 20 CE by [[Herod Antipas]] and was named after [[Roman emperor]] [[Tiberius]].<ref name=":1" /> It became a major political and religious hub of the Jews in the [[Land of Israel]] after the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)|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.<ref>Conder and Kitchener (1881), SWP I, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/419/mode/1up 419-420] "The Sanhedrin, after several removes, came to Tiberias about the middle of the second century, under the celebrated Rabbi Judah Hakkodesh, and from this time Tiberias became the central point of Jewish learning for several centuries. It was here that both the Mishna and the Gemara were compiled."</ref> Tiberias flourished during the [[Timeline of Palestine region#Early Muslim period|Early Muslim period]], when it served as the capital of [[Jund al-Urdunn]] and became a multi-cultural trading center.<ref name=":1">Hirschfeld, Y. (2007). Post-Roman Tiberias: between East and West. ''Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium: Byzantium, Pliska, and the Balkans'', ''5'', p. 193–204.</ref> The city declined in importance over time due to earthquake damage and  foreign incursions.<ref name=":1" /> After the [[Galilee earthquake of 1837]] the city was rebuilt and grew steadily following the [[First Aliyah|First Jewish Aliyah]] in the 1880s.

In early modern times, Tiberias was a [[Mixed cities|mixed city]]; under [[Mandatory Palestine|British rule]] 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.<ref name=Abbasi>{{cite journal | last=Abbasi | first=Mustafa | title=The end of Arab Tiberias: the Arabs of Tiberias and the Battle for the City in 1948 | journal=Journal of Palestine Studies | publisher=Informa UK Limited | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240759727|volume=37 | issue=3 | date=2008-04-01 | issn=0377-919X | doi=10.1525/jps.2008.37.3.6 | pages=6–29}}</ref><ref name="Rabinowitz Monterescu 2008 pp. 195–226">{{cite journal |last1=Rabinowitz |first1=Dan |last2=Monterescu |first2=Daniel |title=Reconfiguring the "Mixed Town": Urban Transformations of Ethnonational Relations in Palestine and Israel |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |volume=40 |issue=2 |date=2008-05-01 |issn=1471-6380 |doi=10.1017/S0020743808080513 |pages=195–226 |s2cid=162633906 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/reconfiguring-the-mixed-town-urban-transformations-of-ethnonational-relations-in-palestine-and-israel/5AB0B676A0679858F98AB3DA8AC20B6A/share/c4e2722f72e7ade9c6e43f8b7dc8253663029555 |quote=The first mixed town forcibly emptied of its Palestinian residents was Tiberias, the 5,770 Palestinian inhabitants of which were driven out – mostly on buses – on 16 and 17 April 1948, when the town was taken by Jewish Hagana forces. ... In Tiberias, the demise of the Palestinian community was coupled in early 1949 with mass destruction of their old properties. By March the Israeli army had blown up and bulldozed 477 of the 696 buildings in the old city,&S|url-access=subscription }}</ref> After the war ended, the new Israeli authorities destroyed the Old City of Tiberias.<ref name="Abbasi 2008 pp. 45–80">{{cite journal |last=Abbasi |first=Mustafa |title=The War on the Mixed Cities: The Depopulation of Arab Tiberias and the Destruction of Its Old, 'Sacred' City (1948–9) |journal=Holy Land Studies |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |volume=7 |issue=1 |year=2008 |issn=1474-9475 |doi=10.3366/e1474947508000061 |pages=45–80}}</ref><ref name="Rabinowitz Monterescu 2008 pp. 195–226" /> 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, [[Hamat Tiberias|Hammat Tiberias]], which is now part of modern Tiberias, has been known for its [[hot springs]], believed to cure skin and other [[Disease|ailments]], for some two thousand years.<ref name="Erfurt-CooperCooper20092">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C-MbLJvPg0AC&pg=PA78 |title=Health and Wellness Tourism: Spas and Hot Springs |date=27 July 2009 |publisher=Channel View Publications |isbn=978-1-84541-363-7 |page=78 |author1=Patricia Erfurt-Cooper |author2=Malcolm Cooper |access-date=29 October 2015 |archive-date=6 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506124014/https://books.google.com/books?id=C-MbLJvPg0AC&pg=PA78 |url-status=live}}</ref>

== Etymology ==
The city of Tiberias was named after the [[Roman emperor|Roman Emperor]] [[Tiberius]].<ref name=":1" />

A [[Midrash]] regarding the city's name appears in the [[Talmud|Babylonian Talmud]], ''[[Megillah (Talmud)|Tractate Megillah]]'' ''6A'':

''"Rabbi Yirmiya said: [...] And why is it called Tiberias? Because it sits at the navel (tabur) of the Land of Israel".''

[[Rashi]], in his commentary, provides two interpretations of the Midrash. The first explains the word ''"navel" (tabur)'' as referring to the lowest point in the Land of Israel. The second interpretation suggests that Tiberias is situated at the geographical center of the Land of Israel. [[Ishtori Haparchi]] later substantiated this claim through measurements of the entire land, demonstrating its accuracy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shneor |first=David |date=2012 |title=Geographical Descriptions of Eretz Israel in "Kaftor VaFerah" Compared to Geographical Explanations of Medieval Exegetes |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23409916 |journal=Cathedra: For the History of Eretz Israel and Its Yishuv |language=he |issue=143 |pages=104–105 |issn=0334-4657}}</ref>

==History==
: ''See [[Diocese of Tiberias]] for [[Church history|ecclesiastical history]]''

===Biblical era===
Jewish tradition holds that Tiberias was built on the site of the ancient Israelite village of ''[[Rakkath]]'' or ''Rakkat'', first mentioned in the [[Book of Joshua]].<ref name=thedate />
<ref name="JewishEnc2">{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=205&letter=T|title=TIBERIAS – JewishEncyclopedia.com|website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com|access-date=2008-10-10|archive-date=2008-03-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080328221848/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=205&letter=T|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|19:35}}</ref> In [[Talmud]]ic times, the Jews still referred to it by this name.<ref>Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Megillah 5b</ref>

===Roman period===
====Herodian period====
Tiberias was founded sometime around 18–20 CE in the [[Herodian Tetrarchy]] of Galilee and [[Perea]] by the Roman [[client state|client king]] [[Herod Antipas]], son of [[Herod the Great]].<ref name=thedate>John Everett Heath, ''The Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names'' (Oxford 2017) gives the date 18 CE in the entry for Tiberias. Geoffrey Bromiley in the ''International Standard Bible Encyclopedia'' Vol 2, 1979 gives the date 20 CE. They both say it was built where the village of Rakkat used to be.</ref> Herod Antipas made it the capital of his realm in Galilee and named it after the [[Roman emperor]] [[Tiberius]].<ref name="JewishEnc2" /> The city was built in immediate proximity to a spa which had developed around seventeen natural mineral hot springs, [[Hammat Tiberias]]. Tiberias was at first a strictly pagan city, but later became populated mainly by Jews, with its growing spiritual and religious status exerting a strong influence on [[balneotherapy|balneological]] practices.<ref name="Erfurt-CooperCooper20092" />{{dubious|... and highly so. Judaism and balneotherapy do not mix.|date=August 2016}} Conversely, in ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'', the Roman-Jewish historian [[Josephus]] calls the village with hot springs Emmaus, today's Hammat Tiberias, located near Tiberias.<ref name="JAoJ2">Josephus, ''Antiquities of the Jews'' [[wikisource:The Antiquities of the Jews/Book XVIII#Chapter 2|XVIII.2.3]]</ref>{{Citation needed|date=November 2020}} This name also appears in his work ''[[The Jewish War]]''.<ref>Josephus, Flavius, ''The Jewish Wars'', translated by William Whiston, Book 4, chapter 1, paragraph 3</ref>

Under the [[Roman Empire]], the city was known by its [[Koine Greek]] name '''Τιβεριάς''' (''Tiberiás'', {{langx|el|Τιβεριάδα|Tiveriáda}}).{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}

In the days of Herod Antipas, some of the most religiously orthodox [[Jews]], who were struggling against the process of [[Hellenisation]], which had affected even some [[Kohen|priestly groups]], refused to settle there: the presence of a [[cemetery]] rendered the site ritually unclean for the Jews and particularly for the priestly [[caste]]. Antipas settled many non-Jews there from rural Galilee and other parts of his domains in order to populate his new capital, and built a palace on the [[acropolis]].<ref name="MDotB2" />{{dubious|Acropolis usually implies a height, which is not the case for Tib.|date=August 2016}} The prestige of Tiberias was so great that the Sea of Galilee soon came to be named the Sea of Tiberias; however, the Jewish population continued to call it ''Yam HaKineret'', its traditional name.<ref name="MDotB2" /> The city was governed by a city council of 600 with a committee of ten until [[44 CE]], when a [[Procurator (ancient Rome)|Roman procurator]] was set over the city after the death of [[Herod Agrippa I]].<ref name="MDotB2" /> The city is estimated to have had a population between 4,500 and 15,000 during the first century CE.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reed |first=Jonathan L. |title=Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus: a re-examination of the evidence |date=2002 |publisher=Trinity Press International |isbn=978-1-56338-394-6 |location=Harrisburg, Pa |pages=82}}</ref>

Tiberias is mentioned in {{bibleverse||John|6:23|NKJV}} as the location from which boats had sailed to the opposite, eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd seeking [[Jesus]] after the miraculous [[Feeding the multitude|feeding of the 5000]] used these boats to travel back to [[Capernaum]] on the north-western part of the lake.

In [[AD 61|61 CE]] [[Herod Agrippa II]] annexed the city to his kingdom whose capital was [[Banias|Caesarea Philippi]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}

====Great Revolt and Bar Kokhba revolt====
During the [[First Jewish–Roman War]], the Jewish rebels took control of the city and destroyed Herod's palace, and were able to prevent the city from being pillaged by the army of [[Agrippa II]], the Jewish ruler who had remained loyal to Rome.<ref name="MDotB2" /><ref>Crossan, John Dominic (1999) ''Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Christ''. Continuum International Publishing Group, {{ISBN|0-567-08668-2}}, p 232</ref> Eventually, the rebels were expelled from Tiberias, and while most other cities in the provinces of Judaea, Galilee and [[Edom|Idumea]] were razed, Tiberias was spared this fate because its inhabitants had decided not to fight against Rome.<ref name="MDotB2" /><ref>Thomson, 1859, vol 2, p. [https://archive.org/stream/landandbookorbi08thomgoog#page/n84/mode/1up 72]</ref> It became a mixed city after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE; with Judea subdued, the surviving southern Jewish population migrated to Galilee.<ref>Safrai Zeev (1994) ''The Economy of Roman Palestine'' Routledge, {{ISBN|0-415-10243-X}}, p 199</ref><ref name="ERBRiP2">Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearch03robiuoft#page/269/mode/1up 269]</ref>
[[File:The_Roman_Gate_-_Tiberias_(3).jpg|thumb|The Roman-Byzantine southern city gate]]
[[File:Tiberias-S-506.jpg|thumb|Remains of Crusader fortress gate with ancient lintel in secondary use]]

There is no direct indication that Tiberias, as well as the rest of Galilee, took part in the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]] of 132–136 CE, thus allowing it to continue to exist, despite a heavy economic decline due to the war. Following the expulsion of Jews from Judea after 135 CE, Tiberias and its neighbour [[Sepphoris]] (Hebrew name: Tzippori) became the major Jewish cultural centres.

====Late Roman period====
According to the Talmud, in 145 CE, [[Rabbi]] [[Simeon bar Yochai]], who was very familiar with Galilee, hiding there for over a decade, "cleansed the city of ritual impurity",{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}} allowing the Jewish leadership to resettle there from the Judea, which they were forced to leave as fugitives. The [[Sanhedrin]], the Jewish court, also fled from Jerusalem during the [[First Jewish–Roman War|Great Jewish Revolt]] against Rome, and after several attempted moves, in search of stability, eventually settled in Tiberias in about 220 CE.<ref name="MDotB2">''Mercer Dictionary of the Bible'' Edited by Watson E. Mills, Roger Aubrey Bullard, Mercer University Press, (1998) {{ISBN|0-86554-373-9}} p 917</ref><ref name="ERBRiP2" /> It was to be its final meeting place before its disbanding in 425 CE. When [[Johanan bar Nappaha]] (d. 279) settled in Tiberias, the city became the focus of Jewish religious scholarship in the land and the so-named [[Jerusalem Talmud]] was compiled by his school in Tiberias between 230–270 CE.<ref name="ERBRiP2" /> Tiberias' 13 synagogues served the spiritual needs of a growing Jewish population.<ref name="MDotB2" /> Tombs of famous rabbis [[Yohanan ben Zakkai]], [[Rabbi Akiva|Akiva]] and [[Maimonides]] are also located in the city.

====Byzantine period====
During the [[Byzantine Palestine|Byzantine period]], Tiberias was incorporated into the province of [[Palaestina Secunda]].{{Sfn|Avi-Yonah|2002|p=134-139}} In the 6th century Tiberias was still the seat of Jewish religious learning. In light of this, the ''[[Letter of Simeon of Beth Arsham]]'' urged the Christians of Palaestina to seize the leaders of Judaism in Tiberias, to put them to the rack, and to compel them to command the Jewish king, [[Dhu Nuwas]], to desist from persecuting the Christians in [[Najran]].<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia: Tiberias2">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=205&letter=T#ixzz0RkgRIUUe |title=TIBERIAS |encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia|access-date=2008-10-10|archive-date=2008-03-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080328221848/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=205&letter=T#ixzz0RkgRIUUe|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 614, Tiberias was the site where, during the final [[Jewish revolt against Heraclius|Jewish revolt against the Byzantine Empire]], parts of the Jewish population supported the [[Sassanid Empire|Persian]] invaders; the Jewish rebels were financed by [[Benjamin of Tiberias]], a man of immense wealth; according to Christian sources, during the revolt Christians were massacred and churches destroyed. In 628, the Byzantine army returned to Tiberias upon the surrender of Jewish rebels and the end of the Persian occupation after they were defeated in the [[Battle of Nineveh (627)|battle of Nineveh]]. A year later, influenced by radical Christian monks, Emperor [[Heraclius]] instigated a wide-scale slaughter of the Jews, which practically emptied Galilee of most its Jewish population, with survivors fleeing to Egypt.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}}

===Early Muslim period===
Tiberias, or Tabariyyah in Arab transcription, was "conquered by (the Arab commander) [[Shurahbil ibn Hasana|Shurahbil]] in the year 634/15 [CE/AH] by capitulation; one half of the houses and churches were to belong to the Muslims, the other half to the Christians."<ref>Le Strange, 1890, p. [https://archive.org/stream/palestineundermo00lestuoft#page/340/mode/1up 340], quoting [[Yaqut al-Hamawi|Yakut]]</ref> Since 636 CE, Tiberias served as the regional capital, until [[Beit She'an]] took its place, following the [[Rashidun Caliphate|Rashidun]] conquest.{{clarify|reason=Nonsensical, unless Beth She'an was captured a few years after Tiberias. Rashidun conquest = Muslin conquest, and in Palestine it started in the 630s, ending un 641.|date=September 2021}} The Caliphate allowed 70 Jewish families from Tiberias to form the core of a renewed Jewish presence in Jerusalem and the importance of Tiberias to Jewish life declined.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}} The caliphs of the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] Dynasty built one of its square-plan palaces on the waterfront to the north of Tiberias, at [[Khirbat al-Minya]]. Tiberias was revitalised in 749, after Bet Shean was destroyed in an earthquake.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}} An imposing mosque, {{convert|90|m|ft|abbr=off}} long by {{convert|78|m|ft|abbr=off}} wide, resembling the [[Umayyad Mosque|Great Mosque]] of [[Damascus]], was raised at the foot of [[Mount Berenice]] next to a Byzantine church, to the south of the city, as the eighth century ushered in Tiberias's golden age, when the multicultural city may have been the most tolerant of the Middle East.<ref name="Hasson2">Nir Hasson, [https://www.haaretz.com/news/national/in-excavation-of-ancient-mosque-volunteers-dig-up-israeli-city-s-golden-age.premium-1.458874 'In excavation of ancient mosque, volunteers dig up Israeli city's Golden Age,'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120817051950/http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/in-excavation-of-ancient-mosque-volunteers-dig-up-israeli-city-s-golden-age.premium-1.458874 |date=2012-08-17}} at ''Haaretz'', 17 August 2012.</ref> Jewish scholarship flourished from the beginning of the 8th century to the end of the 10th, when the oral traditions of [[Biblical Hebrew|ancient Hebrew]], still in use today, were codified. One of the leading members of the Tiberian [[Masoretes|Masoretic community]] was [[Aaron ben Moses ben Asher]], who refined the oral tradition now known as [[Tiberian Hebrew]]. Both the [[Codex Cairensis]] and the [[Aleppo Codex]] were written in Tiberias as well as the [[Tiberian vocalization]] was devised here.
[[File:Tiberias-2-073.jpg|thumb|Remains of Roman theatre]]
[[File:Hamat-Tiberias-119.jpg|thumb|[[Hamat Tiberias|Hammat Tiberias]] synagogue floor]]

The Arab geographer [[al-Muqaddasi]] writing in 985, describes Tiberias as a hedonistic city afflicted by heat: "For two months they dance; for two months they gobble; for two months they swat; for two months they go about naked; for two months they play the reed flute; and for two months they wallow in the mud."<ref name="Hasson2" /> As "the capital of Jordan Province, and a city in the Valley of Canaan. ... The town is narrow, hot in summer and unhealthy...There are here eight natural hot baths, where no fuel need be used, and numberless basins besides of boiling water. The [[mosque]] is large and fine, and stands in the market-place. Its floor is laid in pebbles, set on stone drums, placed close one to another." According to Muqaddasi, those who suffered from scab or ulcers, and other such diseases came to Tiberias to bathe in the hot springs for three days. "Afterwards they dip in another spring which is cold, whereupon ... they become cured."<ref>Muk. p.161 and 185, quoted in Le Strange, 1890, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/palestineundermo00lestuoft#page/334/mode/1up 334]- [https://archive.org/stream/palestineundermo00lestuoft#page/337/mode/1up 337]</ref>

Tiberias was plagued by incursions by the radical [[Shi'ite]] [[Qarmatians]] at the beginning of the tenth century. During that period, the Academy of Eretz Israel left Tiberias for Jerusalem. Later in the same century, the region came under the control by the [[Fatimid Caliphate]].<ref name=":1" /> By this time, Tiberias had experienced its last period of prosperity; dried fruit, oil, and wine had been exported to [[Cairo]] via the [[Via Maris]], and the city was also known for its mat industry.<ref name=":1" />

In 1033 Tiberias was again [[1033 Jordan Rift Valley earthquake|destroyed by an earthquake]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}} A further earthquake in 1066 toppled the great mosque.<ref name="Hasson2" /> [[Nasir Khusraw|Nasir-i Khusrou]] visited Tiberias in 1047, and describes a city with a "strong wall" which begins at the border of the lake and goes all around the town except on the water-side. Furthermore, he describes
: <blockquote>numberless buildings erected in the very water, for the bed of the lake in this part is rock; and they have built pleasure houses that are supported on columns of [[marble]], rising up out of the water. The lake is very full of fish. [] The Friday Mosque is in the midst of the town. At the gate of the mosque is a spring, over which they have built a hot bath. [] On the western side of the town is a mosque known as the Jasmine Mosque (Masjid-i-Yasmin). It is a fine building and in the middle part rises a great platform (dukkan), where they have their [[mihrab]]s (or prayer-niches). All round those they have set [[jasmine]]-shrubs, from which the mosque derives its name.<ref>Le Strange, 1890, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/palestineundermo00lestuoft#page/336/mode/1up 336]-7</ref></blockquote>

===Crusader period===
[[File:Keverambam.jpg|thumb|The tomb of [[Maimonides]]]]

During the [[First Crusade]] Tiberias was occupied by the [[Franks]] soon after the capture of [[Jerusalem]]. The city was given in fief to [[Tancred, Prince of Galilee|Tancred]], who made it his capital of the [[Principality of Galilee]] in the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]]; the region was sometimes called the Principality of Tiberias, or the Tiberiad.<ref>Richard, Jean (1999) ''The Crusades c. 1071-c 1291'', Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|0-521-62369-3}} p 71</ref> In 1099 the original site of the city was abandoned, and settlement shifted north to the present location.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}} [[St. Peter's Church, Tiberias|St. Peter's Church]], originally built by the Crusaders, is still standing today, although the building has been altered and reconstructed over the years.

In the late 12th century Tiberias' Jewish community numbered 50 Jewish families, headed by rabbis,<ref>"Journey of [[Benjamin of Tudela]] in Palestine and Syria, {{circa|1170}}" in Yaari, p.[https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=36832&st=%D7%98%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%94&pgnum=43&hilite= 44] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304001907/https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=36832&st=%D7%98%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%94&pgnum=43&hilite= |date=2020-03-04 }}</ref> and at that time the best manuscripts of the [[Torah]] were said to be found there.<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia: Tiberias2" /> In the 12th-century, the city was the subject of negative undertones in Islamic tradition. A ''[[hadith]]'' recorded by Ibn Asakir of Damascus (d. 1176) names Tiberias as one of the "four cities of hell."<ref name="LaiouMottahedeh20012">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YTAhPw3SjxIC&pg=PA63 |title=The Crusades from the perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim world |publisher=Dumbarton Oaks |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-88402-277-0 |page=63 |quote=This hadith is also found in the bibliographical work of the Damascene Ibn ‘Asakir (d. 571/1176), although slightly modified: the four cities of paradise are Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem and Damascus; and the four cities of hell are Constantinople, Tabariyya, Antioch and San'a.|author1=Angeliki E. Laiou |author1-link=Angeliki Laiou |author2=Roy P. Mottahedeh |author2-link=Roy Mottahedeh |access-date=17 October 2010 |archive-date=22 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722054810/http://books.google.com/books?id=YTAhPw3SjxIC&pg=PA63 |url-status=live}}</ref> This could have been reflecting the fact that at the time, the town had a notable non-Muslim population.<ref name="Gil19972">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M0wUKoMJeccC&pg=PA175|title=A history of Palestine, 634–1099|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-521-59984-9|page=175; ft. 49|author=Moshe Gil|access-date=17 October 2010|archive-date=22 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130622004720/http://books.google.com/books?id=M0wUKoMJeccC&pg=PA175|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1187, [[Saladin]] ordered his son [[Al-Afdal ibn Salah ad-Din|al-Afdal]] to send an envoy to Count [[Raymond III of Tripoli|Raymond of Tripoli]] requesting safe passage through his fiefdom of Galilee and Tiberias. Raymond was obliged to grant the request under the terms of his treaty with Saladin. Saladin's force left [[Caesarea Philippi]] to engage the fighting force of the [[Knights Templar]]. The Templar force was destroyed in [[Battle of Cresson|the encounter]]. Saladin then [[Siege|besieged]] Tiberias; after six days the town fell. On 4 July 1187 Saladin defeated the Crusaders coming to relieve Tiberias at the [[Battle of Hattin]], {{convert|10|km|0|abbr=off}} outside the city.<ref>Wilson, John Francis. (2004) Caesarea Philippi: Banias, the Lost City of Pan I.B.Tauris, {{ISBN|1-85043-440-9}} p 148</ref> However, during the [[Third Crusade]], the Crusaders drove the Muslims out of the city and reoccupied it.

Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, ([[Maimonides]]) also known as Rambam, a leading Jewish legal scholar, philosopher and physician of his period, died in 1204 in [[Egypt]] and was later buried in Tiberias. His tomb is one of the city's important pilgrimage sites. [[Yaqut al-Hamawi|Yakut]], writing in the 1220s, described Tiberias as a small town, long and narrow. He also describes the "hot salt springs, over which they have built [[Turkish bath|Hammams]] which use no fuel."

===Mamluk period===
In 1265 the [[Crusaders]] were driven from the city by the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Egyptian Mamluks]], who ruled Tiberias until the Ottoman conquest in 1516.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}

===Ottoman period===
[[File:1822 Burckhardt sketch of Tiberias.png|thumb|[[Johann Ludwig Burckhardt]]'s sketch of Tiberias, published in 1822. Burckhardt noted that the a quarter of the population was Jewish, and had originated in Poland, Spain, North Africa and other parts of Syria.<ref>{{cite book|last=Burckhardt|first=John Lewis|others=Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa|title=Travels in Syria and the Holy Land|year=2004|orig-date=1822|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R9N70FsNRNYC|publisher=J. Murray|isbn=9781414283388 |quote=There are about four thousand inhabitants in Tabaria, one-fourth of whom are Jews… The Jews of Tiberias occupy a quarter on the shore of the lake in the middle of the town, which has lately been considerably enlarged by the purchase of several streets: it is separated from the rest of the town by a high wall, and has only one gate of entrance, which is regularly shut at sunset, after which no person is allowed to pass. There are one hundred and sixty, or two hundred families, of which forty or fifty are of Polish origin, the rest are Jews from Spain, Barbary, and different parts of Syria.|access-date=2020-09-17|archive-date=2021-05-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518182703/https://books.google.com/books?id=R9N70FsNRNYC|url-status=live}}</ref>]]

[[File:Francis_Frith._Tiberias,_from_the_South.jpg|thumb|Tiberas, 1862]]

During the 16th century, Tiberias was a small village. Italian Rabbi [[Moses ben Mordecai Bassola|Moses Bassola]] visited Tiberias during his trip to Palestine in 1522. He said on Tiberias that "it was a big city ... and now it is ruined and desolate". He described the village there, in which he said there were "ten or twelve" Muslim households. The area, according to Bassola, was dangerous "because of the Arabs", and in order to stay there, he had to pay the local governor for his protection.<ref>Yaari, pp.[https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=36832&st=%D7%98%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%94&pgnum=154&hilite=155] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226095847/https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=36832&st=%D7%98%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%94&pgnum=154&hilite=155|date=2020-02-26}}–156</ref>

As the [[Ottoman Empire]] expanded along the southern Mediterranean coast under Sultan [[Selim I]], the ''Reyes Católicos'' ([[Catholic Monarchs]]) began establishing [[Inquisition]] commissions. Many [[Converso|''Conversos'']], ([[Marrano|''Marranos'']] and [[Morisco|''Moriscos'']]) and [[Sephardi Jews]] fled in fear to the Ottoman provinces, settling at first in [[Constantinople]], [[Salonika]], [[Sarajevo]], [[Sofia]] and [[Anatolia]]. The Sultan encouraged them to settle in Palestine.<ref>Toby Green (2007). ''Inquisition; The Reign of Fear''. Macmillan Press {{ISBN|978-1-4050-8873-2}} pp. xv–xix.</ref><ref name= alfassa2>{{cite web |last= Alfassá |first= Shelomo |title= Sephardic Contributions to the Development of the State of Israel |date= 17 August 2007 |website= Alfassa.com |url= http://www.alfassa.com/contributions.pdf |access-date= 14 January 2015 |url-status= usurped |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071012042245/http://www.alfassa.com/contributions.pdf |archive-date= 2007-10-12}}</ref> In 1558, a Portuguese-born [[marrano]], [[Doña Gracia]], was granted tax collecting rights in Tiberias and its surrounding villages by [[Suleiman the Magnificent]]. She envisaged the town becoming a refuge for Jews and obtained a permit to establish Jewish autonomy there.<ref>Schaick, Tzvi. [http://www.donagracia.com/DonaGracia/DonaHouse/english/donagratzia.htm Who is Dona Gracia?] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510235707/http://www.donagracia.com/DonaGracia/donahouse/english/donagratzia.htm |date=2011-05-10 }}, The House of Dona Gracia Museum.</ref> In 1561 her nephew [[Joseph Nasi]], Lord of Tiberias,<ref>Naomi E. Pasachoff, Robert J. Littman, ''A Concise History of the Jewish People'', [[Lanham, Maryland|Lanham]], Rowman & Littlefield, 2005, p.163</ref> encouraged Jews to settle in Tiberias and rebuild the city.<ref name="Gordon2">Benjamin Lee Gordon, ''New Judea: Jewish Life in Modern Palestine and Egypt'', [[Manchester, New Hampshire]], Ayer Publishing, 1977, p.209</ref> Securing a ''[[firman]]'' from the Sultan, he and [[Joseph ben Adruth]] rebuilt the city walls and lay the groundwork for a textile ([[silk]]) industry, planting [[Mulberry|mulberry trees]] and urging craftsmen to move there.<ref name="Gordon2" /> Plans were made for Jews to move from the [[Papal States]], but when the Ottomans and the Republic of Venice went to war, the plan was abandoned.<ref name="Gordon2" />

At the end of the century (1596), the village of Tiberias had 54 households: 50 families and 4 bachelors. All were [[Muslim]]s. The main product of the village at that time was wheat, while other products included barley, fruit, fish, goats and bee hives; the  total revenue was 3,360 [[akçe]].<ref>Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 188</ref>

In 1624, when the Sultan recognized [[Fakhr-al-Din II]] as Lord of [[Mount Lebanon Emirate|Arabistan]] (from Aleppo to the borders of Egypt),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.angelfire.com/az/rescon/mgcdruze.html|title=The Druze of the Levant|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309141551/http://www.angelfire.com/az/rescon/mgcdruze.html|archive-date=2012-03-09}}</ref> The [[1660 destruction of Tiberias]] by the [[Druze]] resulted in abandonment of the city by its Jewish community,<ref>Joel Rappel, History of Eretz Israel from Prehistory up to 1882 (1980), Vol.2, p.531. 'In 1662 Sabbathai Sevi arrived to Jerusalem. It was the time when the Jewish settlements of Galilee were destroyed by the Druze: Tiberias was completely desolate and only a few of former Safed residents had returned..."</ref><ref>Barnay, Y. The Jews in Palestine in the eighteenth century: under the patronage of the Istanbul Committee of Officials for Palestine (University of Alabama Press 1992) {{ISBN|978-0-8173-0572-7}} p. 149</ref> Unlike Tiberias, the nearby city of [[Safed]] recovered from its [[1660 destruction of Safed|destruction]],<ref>Sidney Mendelssohn. ''The Jews of Asia: Especially in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century''. (1920) p.241. "Long before the culmination of Sabbathai's mad career, Safed had been destroyed by the Arabs and the Jews had suffered severely, while in the same year (1660) there was a great fire in Constantinople in which they endured heavy losses ..."</ref> and was not entirely abandoned,<ref>Gershom Gerhard Scholem (1976-01-01). ''Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626–1676''. Princeton University Press. p. 368. {{ISBN|978-0-691-01809-6}}. "In Safed, too, the [Sabbatai] movement gathered strength during the autumn of 1665. The reports about the utter destruction, in 1662 {{sic}}, of the Jewish settlement there seem greatly exaggerated, and the conclusions based on them are false. ... Rosanes' account of the destruction of the Safed community is based on a misunderstanding of his sources; the community declined in numbers but continued to exist."</ref> remaining an important Jewish center in Galilee.
[[File:PikiWiki_Israel_11910_leaning_tower_in_tiberias.jpg|thumb|"Leaning tower" at SE corner of [[Zahir al-Umar]]'s walls, part of Greek Orthodox Monastery of the Twelve Apostles]]
In the 1720s, the Arab ruler [[Zahir al-Umar]], of the [[Al-Zayadina|Zaydani clan]], fortified the town and made an agreement with the leader [[Nasif al-Nassar]] of the [[El Assaad Family|Al Saghir clan]] to prevent looting. Accounts from that time tell of the great admiration people had for Zahir, especially his war against bandits on the roads. [[Richard Pococke]], who visited Tiberias in 1727, witnessed the building of a fort to the north of the city, and the strengthening of the old walls, attributing it to a dispute with the Pasha of Damascus.<ref>Pococke, 1745, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009339611#page/n99/mode/1up 68]–70</ref> Under instructions from the [[Ottoman Porte]], [[Sulayman Pasha al-Azm]] of Damascus [[Sieges of Tiberias (1742–1743)|besieged Tiberias in 1742]], with the intention of eliminating Zahir, but his siege was unsuccessful. In the following year, Sulayman set out to repeat the attempt with even greater reinforcements, but he died en route.<ref>{{cite book|title=Palestine in the 18th Century|publisher=Magnes Press|year=1975|isbn=1-59045-955-5|pages=34–36|author=Amnon Cohen}}</ref>
[[File:Jewish House In Tiberias, 1893.jpg|thumb|Jewish house in Tiberias, 1893]]

Under Zahir's patronage, Jewish families were encouraged to settle in Tiberias.<ref>Moammar, Tawfiq (1990), ''Zahir Al Omar'', Al Hakim Printing Press, Nazareth, p. 70.</ref> He invited Rabbi [[Chaim Abulafia]] of [[Smyrna]] to rebuild the Jewish community.<ref name="JS2">Joseph Schwarz. [http://www.jewish-history.com/palestine/tiberias.html Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720195032/http://www.jewish-history.com/palestine/tiberias.html |date=2018-07-20}}, 1850</ref> The synagogue he built still stands today, located in the Court of the Jews.<ref>''The Jews in Palestine in the Eighteenth Century: Under the Patronage of the Istanbul Committee of Officials for Palestine'', Y. Barnay, translated by Naomi Goldblum, University of Alabama Press, 1992, p. 15, 16</ref><ref>''The Jews: Their History, Culture, and Religion'', Louis Finkelstein, Edition: 3 Harper, New York, 1960, p. 659</ref>

In 1775, [[Jazzar Pasha|Ahmed el-Jazzar]] "the Butcher" brought peace to the region with an iron fist.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}} In 1780, many Polish Jews settled in the town.<ref name="JS2" /> During the 18th and 19th centuries it received an influx of [[rabbis]] who re-established it as a center for Jewish learning.<ref>Parfitt, Tudor (1987) ''The Jews in Palestine, 1800–1882''. Royal Historical Society studies in history (52). Woodbridge: Published for the Royal Historical Society by Boydell</ref> An essay written by Rabbi [[Joseph Schwarz (rabbi)|Joseph Schwarz]] in 1850 noted that "Tiberias Jews suffered the least" during an Arab rebellion which took place in 1834.<ref name="JS2" /> Around 600 people, including nearly 500 Jews,<ref name="JS2" /> died when the town was devastated by the [[Galilee earthquake of 1837|1837 Galilee earthquake]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}} An American expedition reported that Tiberias was still in a state of disrepair in 1847/1848.<ref>Lynch, 1850, p. [https://archive.org/stream/narrativeunited02lyncgoog#page/n304/mode/1up 154]</ref> Rabbi Haim Shmuel Hacohen Konorti, born in Spain in 1792, settled in Tiberias at the age of 45 and was a driving force in the restoration of the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.haaretz.com/1.4705492|title=Crumbling Tiberias Synagogue to Regain Its Former Glory|first=Eli|last=Ashkenazi|date=27 December 2009|website=Haaretz|access-date=11 February 2018|archive-date=12 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212143609/https://www.haaretz.com/1.4705492|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the 19th century, the [[Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem]] purchased lands that were incorporated into its growing network of rural estates.<ref>Sasson, Avi, Roy Marom and Saleh Kharanbeh. "Bayyarat al-Khuri: An Ecclesiastical Agricultural Estate in Caesarea, Israel." ''Palestine Exploration Quarterly'' (2025). https://doi.org/10.1080/00310328.2025.2515756</ref>

[[File:Zoltan Kluger. Tiberias.jpg|thumb|Tiberias 1937, Dr. Torrance's hospital centre of photograph]]

===British Mandate===
[[File:Abbud26C.jpg|thumb|Postcard of Tiberias, by [[Karimeh Abbud]], ca 1925]]
[[File:חמי טבריה 1924.jpg|thumb|Hot springs in Tiberias 1924, Younes & Soraya Nazrian library, University of Haifa digital collections]]
[[File:1928הרחוב הראשי של טבריה. אוסף קרוזו מתוך האוספים הדיגיטליים של ספריית יונס וסוראיה נזריאן, אוניברסיטת חיפה.jpg|thumb|Tiberias main road, 1925, Younes & Soraya Library digital collections, University of Haifa]]
In the [[1922 census of Palestine]] conducted by the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate authorities]], Tiberias had a population of 6,950 inhabitants, consisting of 4,427 Jews, 2,096 Muslims, 422 Christians, and five others.<ref name=Barronp6>Barron, 1923, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n8/mode/1up 6]</ref> Initially the relationship between Arabs and Jews in Tiberias was good, with few incidents occurring in the [[1920 Palestine riots|Nebi Musa riots]] in 1920 and the Arab riots throughout [[1929 Palestine riots|Palestine in 1929]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Śegev |first1=Tom |title=One Palestine, complete: Jews and Arabs under the British mandate |date=2001 |publisher=Holt |isbn=978-0-8050-6587-9 |edition=1. Owl Books |series=An Owl book |location=New York}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cohen |first=Hillel |title=Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929 |date=2015 |publisher=Brandeis University Press |isbn=978-1-61168-812-2 |series=The Schusterman series in Israel studies |location=Waltham, Massachusetts |translator-last=Watzman |translator-first=Haim}}</ref> The first modern spa was built in 1929.<ref name="Erfurt-CooperCooper20092" />

The landscape of the modern town was shaped by the great flood of 11 November 1934. Deforestation on the slopes above the town combined with the fact that the city had been built as a series of closely packed houses and buildings – usually sharing walls – built in narrow roads paralleling and closely hugging the shore of the lake. Flood waters carrying mud, stones, and boulders rushed down the slopes and filled the streets and buildings with water so rapidly that many people did not have time to escape; the loss of life and property was great. The city rebuilt on the slopes and the British Mandatory government planted the [[Swiss Forest]] on the slopes above the town to hold the soil and prevent similar disasters from recurring. A new seawall was constructed, moving the shoreline several yards out from the former shore.<ref>Mandated landscape: British imperial rule in Palestine, 1929–1948, Roza El-Eini, (Routledge, 2006) p. 250</ref><ref>''The Changing Land: Between the Jordan and the Sea: Aerial Photographs from 1917 to the Present'', Benjamin Z. Kedar, Wayne State University Press, 2000, p. 198</ref> In October 1938, Arab militants [[1938 Tiberias massacre|murdered 19 Jews]] in Tiberias during the [[1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1938.htm|title=United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine|format=.JPG|access-date=2007-11-29|archive-date=2019-06-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608153227/http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1938.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Between 8–9 April 1948, sporadic shooting broke out between the Jewish and Arab neighborhoods of Tiberias. Arab Liberation Army and irregular forces attacked and closed the Rosh Pinnah road, isolating the northern Jewish settlements.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tal |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vs2PAgAAQBAJ&dq=tiberias+cut+off+road+1948&pg=PA108 |title=War in Palestine, 1948: Israeli and Arab Strategy and Diplomacy |date=2004-06-24 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-77513-1 |language=en}}</ref> On 10 April, the Haganah launched a mortar barrage, killing some Arab residents.<ref name="morris1832">Morris, 2004, pp. 183–185</ref> The local National Committee refused the offer of the [[Arab Liberation Army]] to take over defense of the city, but a small contingent of outside irregulars moved in.<ref name="morris1832" />

During 10–17 April, the Haganah attacked the city and refused to negotiate a truce, while the British refused to intervene. Newly arrived Arab refugees from [[Nasir ad-Din, Tiberias|Nasir ad-Din]] told of the civilians there being killed, news which brought panic to the residents of Tiberias.<ref name="morris1832" /> The Arab population of Tiberias (6,000 residents or 47.5% of the population) was evacuated by the British forces on 18 April 1948.<ref>Harry Levin, ''Jerusalem Embattled – A diary of a city under siege.'' Cassel, 1997. {{ISBN|0-304-33765-X}}., p.81: 'Extraordinary news from Tiberias. The whole Arab population has fled. Last night the Haganah blew up the Arab bands' headquarters there; this morning the Jews woke up to see a panic flight in progress. By tonight not one of the 6,000 Arabs remained.' (19 April).</ref>

The Jewish population looted the Arab areas and had to be suppressed by force by the [[Haganah]] and Jewish police, who killed or injured several looters.<ref>M Gilbert, p. 172</ref> On 30 December 1948, when [[David Ben-Gurion]] was staying in Tiberias, [[James Grover McDonald]], the [[United States ambassador to Israel]], requested to meet with him. McDonald presented a British ultimatum for Israeli troops to leave the [[Sinai peninsula]], Egyptian territory. Israel rejected the ultimatum, but Tiberias became famous.<ref>Gilbert, p. 245</ref>

====Destruction of the old city====
During the months after the occupation of the city, a large part of the buildings of the old city in Tiberias was destroyed, and this for various reasons - problems of [[hygiene]], rickety construction, and the fear that the Arabs would return to the city, when it became known that this was a requirement of [[Jordan]] as part of the negotiations conducted in [[1949 Armistice Agreements|Rhodes]]. Finally, the authorities acceded to the initiative of the [[Jewish National Fund]], Yosef Nahmani, who argued that the houses of the Old City should be demolished, despite the opposition of Mayor Shimon Dahan.

The destruction began in the summer of 1948 and continued until the first months of 1949.<ref name=abasi>{{cite web|url=https://in.bgu.ac.il/bgi/iyunim/19/mustafa.pdf|title=The destruction of the old city in Tiberias, 1948-1949 |publisher=Ben Gurion University |language=he}}</ref> A visit by [[David Ben-Gurion]] to the city brought an end to the destruction, after 477 out of 696 houses were destroyed according to official estimates.<ref name=ypaz>{{cite web| url= https://files.ybz.org.il/periodicals/Cathedra/88/Article_88.9.pdf| title=Preservation of architectural heritage in the abandoned neighborhoods after the Independence War | publisher= Kathedra| page=103 |language=he}}</ref> After the destruction remained the remains of the wall and the citadel, several houses on the outskirts of the city, as well as the two mosques that operated in the city. The area stood abandoned for decades, until operations began to restore it in the 1970s.<ref name=ypaz2>{{cite web| url= https://files.ybz.org.il/periodicals/Cathedra/88/Article_88.9.pdf| title=Preservation of architectural heritage in the abandoned neighborhoods after the Independence War | publisher= Kathedra| page=106 |language=he}}</ref>

===State of Israel===
[[File:Dover tverya17.jpg|thumb|Tiberias and the [[Sea of Galilee]]]]
[[File:PikiWiki Israel 69028 the tomb of rabbi meir the miracle owner.jpg|thumb|Tomb of [[Rabbi Meir|Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes]]]]
[[File:PikiWiki Israel 11886 house in galilee street tiberias.jpg|thumb|Black basalt buildings in Tiberias]]
The city of Tiberias has been almost entirely Jewish since 1948. Many [[Sephardic]] and [[Mizrahi Jews|Mizrahi]] Jews settled in the city, following the [[Jewish exodus from Arab countries]] in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Over time, government housing was built to accommodate much of the new population, like in many other [[development town]]s.

In 1959, during [[Wadi Salib riots]], the "''Union des Nords-africains'' led by David Ben Haroush, organised a large-scale procession walking towards the nice suburbs of [[Haifa]] creating little damage but a great fear within the population. This small incident was taken as an occasion to express the social malaise of the different [[Mizrahi Jews in Israel|Oriental communities in Israel]] and riots spread quickly to other parts of the country; mostly in towns with a high percentage of the population having North African origins like in Tiberias, in [[Beer-Sheva]], in [[Migdal HaEmek|Migdal-Haemek]]".<ref>{{cite web|author=Jeremy Allouche|title=The Oriental Communities in Israel 1948-2003|url=http://doczz.fr/doc/96608/the-oriental-communities-in-israel--1948-2003|page=35|access-date=2017-12-24|archive-date=2017-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171224214338/http://doczz.fr/doc/96608/the-oriental-communities-in-israel--1948-2003|url-status=live}}</ref>

Over time, the city came to rely on tourism, becoming a major Galilean center for [[Christian pilgrims]] and internal Israeli tourism. The ancient cemetery of Tiberias and its old synagogues are also drawing religious Jewish pilgrims during religious holidays.<ref>M.Gilbert, p.566, 578</ref>

Tiberias consists of a small port on the shores of Galilee lake for both fishing and tourist activities. Since the 1990s, the importance of the port for fishing was gradually decreasing, with the decline of the Tiberias lake level, due to continuing droughts and increased pumping of fresh water from the lake. It was expected that the lake of Tiberias will regain its original level (almost {{convert|6|m|ft|abbr=off}} higher than today), with the full operational capacity of Israeli desalination facilities by 2014. In 2020, the lake raised above the level it was in 1990.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://kineret.org.il/miflasim/?fromdate=1989-01-10&todate=2023-08-10&maxmiflas=-208&minmiflas=-215&Frequency=daily&submitGraph=+%D7%94%D7%A6%D7%92+%D7%90%D7%AA+%D7%94%D7%92%D7%A8%D7%A3+#graph |url-status=live |archive-date=2023-08-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230810143054/https://kineret.org.il/miflasim/?fromdate=1989-01-10&todate=2023-08-10&maxmiflas=-208&minmiflas=-215&Frequency=daily&submitGraph=+%D7%94%D7%A6%D7%92+%D7%90%D7%AA+%D7%94%D7%92%D7%A8%D7%A3+ |website=kineret.org.il |language=he |access-date=10 August 2023 |title=מפלס הכינרת}}</ref>

In 2012, plans were announced for a new ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, Kiryat Sanz, on a slope on the western side of the Kinneret.<ref>[https://www.haaretz.com/news/features/new-ultra-orthodox-neighborhood-to-be-built-in-israel-s-north-1.422255 New ultra-Orthodox neighborhood to be built in Israel's north] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120518170344/http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/new-ultra-orthodox-neighborhood-to-be-built-in-israel-s-north-1.422255 |date=2012-05-18}}, Apr. 3, 2012, Haaretz</ref>

==Demographics==
According to the [[Israel Central Bureau of Statistics|Central Bureau of Statistics]] (CBS), as of August 2023, 49,876 inhabitants lived in Tiberias. According to CBS, as of December 2019 the city was rated 4 out of 10 on the socio-economic scale. The average monthly salary of an employee for the year 2019 was 7,508 NIS.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/doclib/2022/local_authorities20_1879/138_6700.pdf|title=Central Bureau of Statistics - local authorities}}</ref> Among today's population of Jews, many are [[Mizrahi Jews in Israel|Mizrahi]] and [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardic]]. The yearly growth rate of its population is 3.9%.

Following Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 many ex-[[South Lebanon Army]] soldiers and officers who fled from Lebanon settled in Tiberias with [[Lebanese people in Israel|their families]].<ref name="Shachmon 2019">{{Cite journal|last1=Shachmon|first1=Ori|last2=Mack|first2=Merav|date=2019|title=The Lebanese in Israel – Language, Religion and Identity|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13173/zeitdeutmorggese.169.2.0343|journal=Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft|volume=169|issue=2|pages=343–366|doi=10.13173/zeitdeutmorggese.169.2.0343|jstor=10.13173/zeitdeutmorggese.169.2.0343 |s2cid=211647029 |issn=0341-0137|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In the Ottoman registers of 1525, 1533, 1548, 1553, and 1572 all the residents were [[Muslims]].<ref>[[Bernard Lewis|Lewis, Bernard]] (1954), Studies in the Ottoman archives—I, ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London'', Vol. 16, pp 469–501.</ref> The registers in 1596 recorded the population to consist of 50 families and four bachelors, all Muslim.<ref>Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977,  p. 188</ref> In 1780, there were about 4,000 inhabitants, two thirds being Jews.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersfrompales00jollrich|title=Letters from Palestine, descriptive of a tour through Gallilee and Judaea, with some account of the Dead Sea, and of the present state of Jerusalem|first=Thomas Robert|last=Jolliffe|date=11 February 2018|publisher=London, J. Black|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} In 1842, there were about 3,900 inhabitants, around a third of whom were Jews, the rest being Muslims and a few Christians.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=gC1QXYDYMg0C&pg=PA471 The Penny cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge: v. 1–27, Volume 23] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200117183759/https://books.google.com/books?id=gC1QXYDYMg0C&pg=PA471 |date=2020-01-17}}, C. Knight, 1842.</ref> In 1850, Tiberias contained [[Old synagogues of Tiberias|three synagogues]] which served the [[Sephardi]] community, which consisted of 80 families, and the [[Ashkenazim]], numbering about 100 families. It was reported that the Jewish inhabitants of Tiberias enjoyed more peace and security than those of [[Safed]] to the north.<ref>M.Gilbert, Israel: A History (1998), p.3</ref> In 1863, it was recorded that the Christian and Muslim elements made up three-quarters of the population (2,000 to 4,000).<ref>Smith, William (1863) ''A Dictionary of the Bible: Comprising Its Antiquities, Biography, and Natural History'' Little, Brown, p 149</ref> A population list from about 1887 showed that  Tiberias had a population of about 3,640; 2,025 Jews, 30 Latins, 215 Catholics, 15 Greek Catholics, and 1,355 Muslims.<ref>Schumacher, 1888, p. [https://archive.org/stream/quarterlystateme19pale#page/n210/mode/1up  185]</ref>  In 1901, the Jews of Tiberias numbered about 2,000 in a total population of 3,600.<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia: Tiberias2" /> By 1912, the population reached 6,500. This included 4,500 Jews, 1,600 Muslims and 400 Christians.<ref name="CE2">{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14716a.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Tiberias|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=2009-09-21|archive-date=2009-10-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091029210404/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14716a.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the [[1922 census of Palestine]] conducted by the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate authorities]], Tiberias had a population of 6,950 inhabitants, consisting of 4,427 Jews, 2,096 Muslims, 422 Christians, and five others.<ref name=Barronp6 /> There were 5,381 Jews, 2,645 Muslims, 565 Christians and ten others in the [[1931 census of Palestine|1931 census]].<ref>Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas ?]</ref> By 1945, the population had increased to 6,000 Jews, 4,540 Muslims, 760 Christians with ten others.<ref>Village Statistics, 1945</ref>

During the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War|1948 Arab-Israeli War]], Palestinian Arab residents of Tiberias besieged its Jewish quarter. [[Haganah]] troops then successfully attacked the Arab section of the city, and British troops evacuated the Arab residents upon their request.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Tiberias {{!}} Israel {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Tiberias |access-date=2022-06-13 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Some fled in the wake of news of the [[Deir Yassin massacre]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pappe |first=Ilan |title=The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine |publisher=Oneworld Publications |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-85168-555-4 |location=London |pages=92}}</ref> The entire Arab population of the city was removed in 1948 by the British and partly because of [[Haganah]] decision.<ref>{{cite news |last=Gilad |first=Moshe |date=May 18, 2022 |title=How Israel Destroyed Old Tiberias |language=English |newspaper=Haaretz |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-how-israel-destroyed-old-tiberias-1.10805992 |access-date=May 18, 2022}}</ref> After the war had ended, a large number of Jewish immigrants to Israel settled in Tiberias.<ref name=":0" /> Today almost all of the population is Jewish. In 2022, 93.3% of the population was Jewish and 6.7% was counted as other.<ref>{{Cite web |title=טבריה
|url=https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/DocLib/2024/local_authorities22_1957/%D7%98%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%94.pdf |access-date=15 July 2025 |website=[[Israel Central Bureau of Statistics|Central Bureau of Statistics]]}}</ref>

==Urban renewal and preservation==
[[File:Tiberias_Genezareth_Tverya_Kinneret_Israel_datafox.JPG|thumb|Tiberias harbour]]
[[File:Tiberias_hotels.JPG|thumb|Tiberias beachfront]]

Ancient and medieval Tiberias was destroyed by a series of devastating earthquakes, and much of what was built after the major earthquake of 1837 was destroyed or badly damaged in the great flood of 1934. Houses in the newer parts of town, uphill from the waterfront, survived. In 1949, 606 houses, comprising almost all of the built-up area of the old quarter other than religious buildings, were demolished over the objections of local Jews who owned about half the houses.<ref name="Golan2">Arnon Golan, The Politics of Wartime Demolition and Human Landscape Transformation, ''War in History'', vol 9 (2002), pp 431–445.</ref> Wide-scale development began after the [[Six-Day War]], with the construction of a waterfront promenade, open parkland, shopping streets, restaurants and modern hotels. Carefully preserved were several churches, including one with foundations dating from the Crusader period, the city's two Ottoman-era mosques, and several [[Ancient synagogues of Tiberias|ancient synagogues]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1137820.html|title=Old Tiberias synagogue to regain its former glory|work=Haaretz|access-date=2009-12-29|archive-date=2009-12-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091229130354/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1137820.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The city's old masonry buildings constructed of local black basalt with white limestone windows and trim have been designated historic landmarks. Also preserved are parts of the ancient wall, the Ottoman-era citadel, historic hotels, [[Christian tourism|Christian pilgrim hostels]], convents and schools.

==Archaeology==
A 2,000 year-old Roman theatre was discovered {{convert|15|m|ft|abbr=off}} under layers of debris and refuse at the foot of Mount Bernike south of modern Tiberias. It once seated over 7,000 people.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1115642.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090922201708/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1115642.html|title=2,000-year-old amphitheater|archive-date=September 22, 2009}}</ref>

In 2004, excavations in Tiberias conducted by the [[Israel Antiquities Authority]] uncovered a structure dating to the 3rd century CE that may have been the seat of the [[Sanhedrin]]. At the time it was called Beit Hava'ad.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/researchers-say-tiberias-basilica-may-have-housed-sanhedrin-1.117483|title=Researchers Say Tiberias Basilica May Have Housed Sanhedrin|first=Eli|last=Ashkenazi|date=22 March 2004|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=29 November 2011|archive-date=4 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150604044639/http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/researchers-say-tiberias-basilica-may-have-housed-sanhedrin-1.117483|url-status=live}}</ref>

In June 2018, an underground Jewish mausoleum was discovered. Archaeologists said that the mausoleum was between 1,900 to 2,000 years old as of 2018. The names of the dead were inscribed on the ossuaries in [[Greek language|Greek]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/MAGAZINE-builders-accidentally-discover-roman-era-jewish-catacomb-in-israel-1.6167799|title=Builders accidentally discover Roman-era catacomb of rich Jewish family in northern Israel|website=Haaretz|access-date=2018-06-13|archive-date=2018-06-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613234353/https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/MAGAZINE-builders-accidentally-discover-roman-era-jewish-catacomb-in-israel-1.6167799|url-status=live}}</ref>

In January 2021, the foundations of a mosque dating to the earliest years of Muslim rule was excavated just south of the Sea of Galilee by archaeologists led by Katia Cytryn-Silverman from the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]]. Built around 670 CE, it is considered to have been the first purpose-built mosque in the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/28/remnants-of-mosque-from-earliest-decades-of-islam-found-in-israel|title=Remnants of mosque from earliest decades of Islam found in Israel|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=28 January 2021|access-date=29 January 2021|archive-date=29 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129002908/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/28/remnants-of-mosque-from-earliest-decades-of-islam-found-in-israel|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=By Sea of Galilee, archaeologists find ruins of early mosque|url=https://news.yahoo.com/sea-galilee-archaeologists-ruins-early-155953029.html|access-date=2021-09-06|website=news.yahoo.com|date=28 January 2021 |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Geography and climate==
Tiberias is located on the shore of the [[Sea of Galilee]] and the western slopes of the [[Jordan Rift Valley]] overlooking the lake, in the elevation range of {{convert|-200|to(-)|200|m|abbr=off|ft}}. Tiberias has a [[Semi-arid climate|hot semi-arid climate]] ([[Köppen climate classification|Köppen]]: ''BSh'') that borders a [[hot-summer Mediterranean climate]] ([[Köppen climate classification|Köppen]]: ''Csa''), with an annual precipitation of {{convert|437.1|mm|2|abbr=on}}. Summers in Tiberias average a maximum temperature of {{convert|38|C|F|0}} and a minimum temperature of {{convert|25|C|F|0}} in July and August. The winters are mild, with temperatures ranging from {{convert|10|to(-)|18|C|F|0}}. Extremes have ranged from {{convert|0|C|F|0}} to {{convert|48|C|F|0}}.
{{Weather box
| location = Tiberias, Israel (1981–2010 normals),
| single line = yes
| metric first = yes
| Jan high C = 18.1
| Feb high C = 19.3
| Mar high C = 23.1
| Apr high C = 27.8
| May high C = 33.2
| Jun high C = 36.5
| Jul high C = 38.0
| Aug high C = 38.0
| Sep high C = 35.9
| Oct high C = 31.6
| Nov high C = 25.7
| Dec high C = 20.0
| year high C = 28.9
| Jan mean C = 14.3
| Feb mean C = 14.7
| Mar mean C = 17.6
| Apr mean C = 21.5
| May mean C = 26.2
| Jun mean C = 29.5
| Jul mean C = 31.5
| Aug mean C = 31.6
| Sep mean C = 29.6
| Oct mean C = 26.2
| Nov mean C = 21.0
| Dec mean C = 16.1
| year mean C = 
| Jan low C = 10.4
| Feb low C = 10.1
| Mar low C = 12.0
| Apr low C = 15.1
| May low C = 19.1
| Jun low C = 22.5
| Jul low C = 25.0
| Aug low C = 25.2
| Sep low C = 23.3
| Oct low C = 20.8
| Nov low C = 16.3
| Dec low C = 12.1
| year low C = 17.7
| precipitation colour = green
| Jan precipitation mm = 106.9
| Feb precipitation mm = 90.2
| Mar precipitation mm = 55.5
| Apr precipitation mm = 17.6
| May precipitation mm = 3.9
| Jun precipitation mm = 0.1
| Jul precipitation mm = 0.0
| Aug precipitation mm = 0.0
| Sep precipitation mm = 0.6
| Oct precipitation mm = 17.4
| Nov precipitation mm = 51.9
| Dec precipitation mm = 93.0
| year precipitation mm = 437.1
| source 1 = WMO<ref name="Climatological Information" >{{cite web |url=http://worldweather.wmo.int/en/home.html |title=Tiberias 1981-2010 Climate Normals |publisher=World Weather Information Service |access-date=2017-05-13 |archive-date=2017-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516071448/http://worldweather.wmo.int/en/home.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
| source = 
}}<!-- <section end="weather box" /> -->

Tiberias has been severely damaged by earthquakes since antiquity. Earthquakes are known to have occurred in 30, 33, 115, 306, [[Galilee earthquake of 363|363]], 419, 447, 631–32 (aftershocks continued for a month), 1033, 1182, 1202, 1546, [[Near East earthquakes of 1759|1759]], [[Galilee earthquake of 1837|1837]], 1927 and 1943.<ref>[[Haim Watzman|Watzman, Haim]] (29 May 2007). ''A Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel's Rift Valley''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. {{ISBN|978-0374130589}}. p. 161.</ref>

The city is located above the [[Dead Sea Transform]] and is one of the cities in Israel that is most at risk to [[earthquake]]s (along with [[Safed]], [[Beit She'an]], [[Kiryat Shmona]], and [[Eilat]]).<ref>Avraham, Rachel (22 October 2013). "[http://unitedwithisrael.org/experts-warn-major-earthquake-could-hit-israel-any-time Experts Warn: Major Earthquake Could Hit Israel Any Time] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427031922/http://unitedwithisrael.org/experts-warn-major-earthquake-could-hit-israel-any-time/ |date=2014-04-27}}". United With Israel.</ref>

==Health care==
[[File:The_Doctor_House_-_The_Scots_Hotel.JPG|thumb|The [[Scots Hotel]] in the restored former hospital of Dr Torrance]]
In 1885, a Scottish doctor and minister, David Watt Torrance, opened a mission hospital in Tiberias that accepted patients of all races and religions.<ref>[http://info.jpost.com/C001/Demo/gal/isr_guide/north/tiberias.html Tiberias – Walking with the sages in Tiberias] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112183251/http://info.jpost.com/C001/Demo/gal/isr_guide/north/tiberias.html |date=2012-01-12}}</ref> In 1894, it moved to larger premises at Beit abu Shamnel abu Hannah. David Watt Torrance died in Tiberias in 1923. The same year his son, Dr. Herbert Watt Torrance, was appointed head of the hospital. In 1949, following the establishment of the State of Israel, it became a maternity hospital supervised by the [[Ministry of Health (Israel)|Israeli Department of Health]]. After its closure in 1959, the building became a guesthouse until 1999, when it was renovated and reopened as the [[Scots Hotel]].<ref name="UoDArchiveMS38">{{cite web |title=Collection MS 38 - Torrance Collection |url=https://archives.dundee.ac.uk/ms-38 |website=Archive Services Catalogue |publisher=University of Dundee |access-date=9 January 2024}}</ref><ref name="Scots hotel2">{{cite web|url=http://www.inisrael.com/scotshotels/history.html|title=The Scots Hotel- History|publisher=The Scots Hotel|access-date=10 October 2011|archive-date=25 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180325004049/http://www.inisrael.com/scotshotels/history.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20126585|title=BBC News – Scots Hotel: Why the Church of Scotland has a Galilee getaway|last=Roxburgh|first=Angus|date=2012-10-31|publisher=BBC News|access-date=2013-03-12|archive-date=2018-11-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105053656/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20126585|url-status=live}}</ref>

Poria hospital is located near Upper Tiberias neighborhood, and operates a hospitalization control center in the city itself.

== Culture ==

=== Art ===
{{See also|Visual arts in Israel}}
Tiberia due to its pictureque settings and its mix of water and mountain has attracted numerous artists throughout the years. The painter [[Shimshon Holzman]] did several water colours of the city which he compiled into an exhibition and set up a studio in Tiberias in 1950.<ref>{{Cite web |title=שמשון הולצמן |url=https://museum.imj.org.il/artcenter/newsite/he/?artist=%D7%94%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%A6%D7%9E%D7%9F,%20%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%9F&list=%D7%94 |access-date=2025-08-15 |website=Israel Museum |language=he}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=פרי־להמן |first=מאירה |url=https://www.google.co.il/books/edition/%D7%98%D7%95%D7%91%D7%9C_%D7%91%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%98%D7%95%D7%91%D7%9C_%D7%91%D7%90%D7%95%D7%A8/hFZIAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%9F+%D7%94%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%A6%D7%9E%D7%9F+%D7%98%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%94&dq=%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%9F+%D7%94%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%A6%D7%9E%D7%9F+%D7%98%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%94&printsec=frontcover |title=טובל במיים, טובל באור: מאה שנות צבעי־מיים בישראל |last2=Perry-Lehmann |first2=Meira |last3=ישראל (ירושלים) |first3=מוזיאון |date=1998 |publisher=Israel Museum |isbn=978-965-278-221-2 |language=he}}</ref> In 2010 a sculpture museum was opened in Tiberias.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thepulse.co.il/%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%96%D7%99%D7%90%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%9C-%D7%97%D7%93%D7%A9-%D7%A0%D7%97%D7%A0%D7%9A-%D7%91%D7%98%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%94|title=מוזיאון פיסול חדש נחנך בטבריה|date=16 June 2010|website=The-Pulse - חדשות הדופק של ישראל}}</ref>

=== Sports ===
{{unreferenced section|date=October 2023}}
[[File:Tiberias Stadium Bodek Architects 2023.jpg|thumb|263px|Conceptual art of [[Tiberias Football Stadium]], as designed by [[Moti Bodek]] Architects]]

Its first [[association football|football]] club established in 1925 was [[Maccabi Tiberias F.C.|Maccabi Tiberias]], but folded in the 1990s after financial difficulties.

[[Hapoel Tiberias F.C.|Hapoel Tiberias]] represented the city in the [[Israeli Premier League|top division]] of football for several seasons in the 1960s and 1980s, but eventually dropped into the regional leagues and folded due to financial difficulties.

Following Hapoel's demise, a new club, [[Ironi Tiberias F.C.|Ironi Tiberias]], was established, which currently plays in [[Liga Leumit]].

[[6 Nations Championship]] and [[Heineken Cup]] winner [[Jamie Heaslip]] was born in Tiberias.

The [[Tiberias Marathon]] is an annual road race held along the Sea of Galilee in Israel with a field in recent years of approximately 1000 competitors. The course follows an out-and-back format around the southern tip of the sea, and was run concurrently with a 10k race along an abbreviated version of the same route. In 2010 the 10k race was moved to the afternoon before the marathon. At approximately {{convert|200|m|ft|abbr=off}} below [[sea level]], this is the lowest course in the world.

==Twin towns – sister cities==
{{See also|List of twin towns and sister cities in Israel}}
Tiberias is [[Sister city|twinned]] with:<ref>{{cite web|title=עריםתאומות|url=https://www.tiberias.muni.il/About/Pages/twin-cities.aspx|website=tiberias.muni.il |publisher=Tiberias|language=he|access-date=2020-02-24|archive-date=2020-02-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224224445/https://www.tiberias.muni.il/About/Pages/twin-cities.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
*{{flagicon|USA}} [[Great Neck (village), New York|Great Neck]], [[United States]] (2002)
*{{flagicon|USA}} [[Milwaukee]], [[United States]] (2000)
*{{flagicon|ITA}} [[Montecatini Terme]], [[Italy]] (1979)
*{{flagicon|FRA}} [[Montpellier]], [[France]] (1983)
*{{flagicon|USA}} [[Saint Paul, Minnesota]], [[United States]] 
*{{flagicon|FRA}} [[Saint-Raphaël, Var|Saint-Raphaël]], [[France]] (2006)
*{{flagicon|USA}} [[Tulsa, Oklahoma|Tulsa]], [[United States]] (1990)
*{{flagicon|GER}} [[Worms, Germany|Worms]], [[Germany]] (1986)
*{{flagicon|CHN}} [[Wuxi]], [[China]] (2006)
{{div col end}}

==Notable people==
Prominent people predating the State of Israel, listed by year of birth:
* [[Rabbi Meir]] Baal HaNes (Rabbi Meir the miracle maker), 2nd-century CE Jewish sage
* [[Johanan bar Nappaha]] (180–279), rabbi
* [[Al-Tabarani|Sulayman ibn Ahmad at-Tabarani]] (874–971), Muslim hadith scholar and collector
* [[Akhiyahu HaKohen]] ([[floruit|fl.]] 910 CE), rabbi and Hebrew-language grammarian
* [[Dosa ben Saadia]] (935 – 1018) Talmudic scholar, Gaon of [[Sura Academy|Sura]]
* Donna [[Gracia Mendes Nasi]] (1510–1569), Portuguese philanthropist and one of the wealthiest Jewish women of the Renaissance
* [[Zahir al-Umar]] (c. 1689–1775), virtually autonomous Arab ruler of northern Palestine in the mid-18th century
* [[Shemariah Catarivas]], 18th-century Talmudic writer
* [[Jacob ha-Cohen Sekili]] (1846–1918), rabbi
* [[Hassib Sabbagh]] (1920–2010), Palestinian billionaire businessman, activist and philanthropist

Prominent people in the State of Israel or born/active there, listed alphabetically:
* [[Yossi Abulafia]] (born 1944), writer and graphic artist
* [[Gadi Eizenkot]] (born 1960), IDF Chief of General Staff (Feb. 2015 – Jan. 2019)
* [[Sarai Givaty]] (born 1982), actress, singer-songwriter, and model
* [[Menahem Golan]] (1929–2014), film producer, screenwriter and director
* [[Jamie Heaslip]] (born 1983), Irish rugby union player, born in Tiberias
* [[Elad Levy]] (born 1972 in Tiberias), neurosurgeon known for his contributions in the management of stroke
* [[Shlomit Nir]] (born 1952), Olympic swimmer
* [[Patrick Denis O'Donnell]] (1922–2005), Commandant of the Irish Defence Forces, military historian, UN peace-keeper stationed in Tiberias in the 1960s
* [[Yisroel Ber Odesser]] (born c. 1888 in Tiberias – 1994), Breslover Hasid and rabbi
* [[Moshe Peretz]] (born 1983), Mizrahi pop singer-songwriter and composer
* [[Eldad Ronen]] (born 1976), Olympic competitive sailor
* [[Shem-Tov Sabag]] (born 1959), Olympic marathoner
* [[Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit]] (1895–1967), politician, government minister of Israel
* [[Shmuel Toledano]] (1921-2022), former Mossad agent and member of the Knesset
* [[Ya'akov Moshe Toledano]] (1880–1960), rabbi, Israeli Minister of Religions (1958–1960)

==See also==
* [[1660 destruction of Tiberias]]
* [[Bethmaus]], ancient Jewish village next to Tiberias
* [[List of modern names for biblical place names]]
* [[Old synagogues of Tiberias]]
* [[Tzafon Medical Center]], Poriya

==References==
{{reflist|25em}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|editor=Barron, J.B.|title=Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922|url=https://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922|publisher=Government of Palestine|year=1923}}
* {{Cite book |last=Avi-Yonah |first=M. |title=The Holy Land: A Historical Geography from the Persian to the Arab conquest, 536 B.C. to A.D. 640 |date=2002 |publisher=[[Carta Jerusalem]] |isbn=965-220-502-8}}
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/361/mode/1up|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology|
last2=Kitchener|first2=H.H.
|publisher=[[Palestine Exploration Fund|Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund]]|year=1881|volume=1|location=London|ref=pp.361 -2
|last1=Conder|first1=C.R.|author-link1=Claude Reignier Conder
|author-link2=Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener}}
* {{cite web |last=Cytryn-Silverman |first=Katia |title="Excavations at Tiberias (Spring and Autumn 2009): Remains of a District Capital," Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (April 12th–16th, 2010), vol. 2, Wiesbaden, 2012, pp. 599–617. |website=Academia.edu |date=2016-01-03 |url=https://www.academia.edu/19984261 |access-date=2022-06-29}}
* {{cite journal |last=Cytryn-Silverman |first=Katia |title=The Umayyad Mosque of Tiberias |issue=26 |pages=37–61 |journal=Muqarnas |date=2009-01-01 |volume=26 |doi=10.1163/22118993-90000143 |url=https://www.academia.edu/20719909 |access-date=2022-06-29|doi-access=free }}
* {{cite book|title=Village Statistics, April, 1945|url=http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/Hebrew/library/Pages/BookReader.aspx?pid=856390|author=Department of Statistics|year=1945|publisher=Government of Palestine|access-date=2016-11-27|archive-date=2019-04-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402072744/http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/hebrew/library/pages/bookreader.aspx?pid=856390|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr01unkngoog#page/n263/mode/1up|title=Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine|last=Guérin|first=V.|publisher=L'Imprimerie Nationale|year=1880|volume=3: Galilee, pt. 1|location=Paris|language=fr|ref=p.250ff|author-link=Victor Guérin}}
* {{cite book|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html|title=Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine|publisher=Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center|year=1970|first=S.|last=Hadawi|author-link=Sami Hadawi|access-date=2014-10-31|archive-date=2018-12-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181208215837/http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book 
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|title=Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wqULAAAAIAAJ |year=1977 |publisher=Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft |isbn=3-920405-41-2 |access-date=2018-12-10 |archive-date=2019-10-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014140930/https://books.google.com/books?id=wqULAAAAIAAJ |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/palestineundermo00lestuoft|title=Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500|publisher=Committee of the [[Palestine Exploration Fund]]|year=1890|first=G.|last=Le Strange|author-link=Guy Le Strange}}
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/narrativeunited02lyncgoog|title=Narrative of the United States' Expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea|publisher=Lea and Blanchard|year=1850|location=Philadelphia|last1=Lynch|first1=W.F.|author-link1=William F. Lynch}}
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas|title=Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas|publisher=Government of Palestine|year=1932|location=Jerusalem|editor=Mills, E.}}
* {{cite book
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|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-521-00967-6
|author-link=Benny Morris|access-date=2020-11-21|archive-date=2020-07-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725022247/https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer
|last=Palmer|first=E.H.
|publisher=[[Palestine Exploration Fund|Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund]]
|year=1881
|author-link=Edward Henry Palmer}}
* {{cite book|title=A Gazetteer of Buildings in Muslim Palestine (British Academy Monographs in Archaeology)|url=https://www.academia.edu/21620272|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2001|isbn=978-0-19-727011-0|volume=1|pages=299–306|last=Petersen|first=Andrew|access-date=2018-12-17|archive-date=2021-05-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528163040/https://www.academia.edu/21620272/Gazetteer_6_S_Z|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/gri_33125009339611|title=A description of the East, and some other countries|last=Pococke|first=R.|publisher=Printed for the author, by W. Bowyer|year=1745|volume=2|location=London|author-link=Richard Pococke}}
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-_NbE5obqRMC&pg=PA101|title=Secular buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: an archaeological Gazetter|date=1997|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=0521-46010-7|ref=p.101|last=Pringle |first=D.|author-link=Denys Pringle |place=Cambridge|access-date=2015-10-29|archive-date=2016-04-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425035347/https://books.google.com/books?id=-_NbE5obqRMC&pg=PA101|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Y0tA0xLzwEC&pg=PA351|title=The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: L-Z (excluding Tyre)|last=Pringle |first=D.|author-link=Denys Pringle|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=1998|volume=II|ref=p.351-366|isbn=0-521-39037-0|access-date=2015-10-29|archive-date=2016-05-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160504150503/https://books.google.com/books?id=2Y0tA0xLzwEC&pg=PA351|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearch03robiuoft#page/269/mode/1up|title=Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838|last2=Smith|first2=E.|publisher=[[Crocker & Brewster]]|year=1841|volume=3|location=Boston|ref=p.269|last1=Robinson|first1=E.|author-link1=Edward Robinson (scholar)|author-link2=Eli Smith}}
* {{cite journal |last=Schumacher |first=G. |author-link=Gottlieb Schumacher |title=Population list of the Liwa of Akka |journal=Quarterly Statement - Palestine Exploration Fund |volume=20 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/quarterlystateme19pale/page/169 169]–191 |url=https://archive.org/details/quarterlystateme19pale |year=1888}}
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/landandbookorbi05thomgoog#page/n443/mode/1up|title=The Land and the Book: Or, Biblical Illustrations Drawn from the Manners and Customs, the Scenes and Scenery, of the Holy Land|last=Thomson|first=W.M.|publisher=Harper & Brothers|year=1859|edition=1|volume=1|location=New York|ref=p.432|author-link=William McClure Thomson}}
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/landandbookorbi08thomgoog|title=The Land and the Book: Or, Biblical Illustrations Drawn from the Manners and Customs, the Scenes and Scenery, of the Holy Land|last=Thomson|first=W.M.|publisher=Harper & Brothers|year=1859|edition=1|volume=2|location=New York|author-link=William McClure Thomson}}
* {{cite book|url=https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=36832&st=%D7%98%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%94&pgnum=1&hilite=|title=מסעות ארץ ישראל: של עולים יהודים מימי הביניים ועד ראשית ימי שיבת ציון: קיבוצם וביאורם - "Eretz Yisrael Journeys: of Jewish Pilgrims From The Middle Ages and Until the Beginning of the Return to Zion: Collection and Explanation"|last=Yaari|first=Abraham|publisher=Gazit|year=1946|location=Tel Aviv|language=he|access-date=2021-05-22|archive-date=2020-03-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200311204822/https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=36832&st=%D7%98%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%94&pgnum=1&hilite=|url-status=live}} copied and uploaded at "hebrewbooks.org"
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikivoyage}}
* {{citation|title=the official English Facebook page of Tiberias|url=https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tiberias-Sea-of-Galilee/782897771803667?fref=ts}}
* [http://www.tiberias.muni.il/ City council website] {{in lang|he}} {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110808074551/http://www.tiberias.muni.il/openningEng.asp Municipality Site in English]}}
* [https://www.kayak.com/Tiberias.12463.guide Tiberias Travel Guide] (English)
* [http://www.tiberiasexcavation.com/ Tiberias – City of Treasures: The official website of the Tiberias Excavation Project]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090729080529/http://my-country-israel.com/en/North_Kineret/Park-Hamat_Tiberias_National_Park.aspx Hamat Tiberias National Park]}}: description, photo gallery
* [http://www.nbn.org.il/component/content/article/1820-tiveria.html Nefesh B'Nefesh Community Guide for Tiveria-Tiberias, Israel]
* Survey of Western Palestine, Map 6: [http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8369 IAA], [[c:File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.06.jpg|Wikimedia commons]]
* [https://merhav.nli.org.il/primo-explore/search?query=any,contains,%22tiberias%20%20map&tab=default_tab&search_scope=Local&sortby=lso01&vid=NLI&mfacet=rtype,include,Maps,1&mfacet=topic,include,Tiberias%20(Israel),1&mfacet=tlevel,include,online_resources,1&lang=en_US&offset=0&came_from=sort Old maps and views of Tiberias (1493-1963)] - Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, The [[National Library of Israel]]
* [http://tiberias.sadot-irrigation.com Ancient Tiberias] - a site dedicated to the preservation of Ancient Tiberias (Hebrew).

{{North District (Israel)}}
{{Largest Israeli cities}}
{{Holy sites in Judaism}}
{{Crusader sites in Israel}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Tiberias| ]]
[[Category:Ancient Jewish settlements of Galilee]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman theatres in Israel|Tiberias]]
[[Category:Crusader castles]]
[[Category:Castles and fortifications of the Kingdom of Jerusalem]]
[[Category:Castles in Israel]]
[[Category:Cities in Northern District (Israel)]]
[[Category:Establishments in the Herodian tetrarchy]]
[[Category:Holy cities]]
[[Category:Jewish pilgrimage sites]]
[[Category:Roman towns and cities in Israel]]
[[Category:Populated places established in the 1st century]]
[[Category:Talmud places]]
[[Category:Holy cities of Judaism]]
[[Category:Sea of Galilee]]
[[Category:Herod Antipas]]