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[German Version] is comprised of two regions, Upper and Lower Galilee in northern Palestine. It stretches approx 70 km from north to south. The hills of Lower Galilee rise approx 600 m above sea level, those of the Upper Galilee 1200 m. It is situated between the Litani river in Lebanon and the Jezreel valley in Israel. The average yearly rainfall in Upper Galilee is 800 mm, in Lower Galilee 600 mm, the former consisting mainly of rugged mountains, the latter of fertile valleys interspersed along the east-west mountain range. Galilee first occurs as a proper name in Joshua (20:7; 21:…

[German Version] Jewish town in Upper Galilee, 4 km north of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee (map: Israel. It is mentioned in the NT (Matt 11:21–24; Luke 10:13–16), in rabbinic literature ( t. Men. 9:2 and b. Men. 85a) and in Eusebius of Caesarea (Onomasticon 174.23). The synagogue was constructed in the late 3rd or 4th century ce from black basalt. Its southern wall originally had three entrances facing Jerusalem. The main hall had twelve columns dividing the space into a central nave and three aisles. On architectural fragments in the s…

[German Version] The great port city on the Mediterranean coast on the Sharon plain was named by Herod the Great for Caesar Augustus. It became a Roman colony under Vespasian and a metropolis under Severus Alexander. The name “Caesarea Maritima” was unknown in antiquity, though today it may connote the Roman harbor, which is under water. The Hellenistic town on which the Roman city was built was called “Strato's Tower” and is mentioned in the Zeno papyri. A Jewish population was introduced to the city in c. 100 bce, when Alexander Jannaeus captured it. Herod's Caesarea was h…

[German Version] is an excavation site from the Roman and Byzantine periods 12 km south of Jerusalem. A fortification located on the hilltop at an elevation of 758 km above sea level gives the ruins the unusual appearance of a capped cone. The complex, initially established between 24 and 15 bce by Herod after his marriage to Mariamne, served originally as a fortification to protect Herod and secondarily as the capital of a toparchy. After Herod's death, the location presumably also served as a memorial for Herod (Jos. Ant. XV 323; XVI 12–13). Together with Masada and Machaerus, it…