The Kineret is Israel’s
largest fresh water reservoir, and is also the country’s largest and
most important source and reservoir of drinking water. For this and
other reasons, the Kineret has become an important national symbol and
is also a first class tourism center.
The
beaches that surround the entire lake are similar but different. The
width of the beaches varies in keeping with the local geography,
creating different landscapes in every location. Above the eastern and
western shores, for example, rise the Galilee mountains and the foothills of the Golan,
while to the north there is the Beit Tsida valley, a wide area with
plentiful water that drains from the Jordan River and the Golan
streams, and to the south is the Jordan estuary, which flows south
toward the desert regions.
For this reason, some of the
Kineret’s beaches have soft sand, while others are rocky; some beaches
are narrow while others are very wide. Either way, the beaches are fun
and offer many tourist attractions for every age group. Most of the
beaches allow nature-loving visitors to sleep in camping areas on the
sand, and there are also hostels, guest houses and beachfront hotels.
Most of the beaches also offer various types of water sports and water
activities, such as boating in inflatable rubber dinghies, canoes,
etc.; children can enjoy the giant slides at the water parks (Luna Gal,
Tsemakh or Gai Beach). There are plenty of restaurants and grocery stores along the way, and most of all one can enjoy the calm and tranquility.
The
beaches surrounding the Kineret are also a perfect starting point for
wonderful nature tours of the area. Some of the most popular and
beautiful nature sites are the Jordan Park, the Beit Tsida Nature Reserve, Khamat Gader, Naharayim. There is also the lower Golan Heights region, which borders on the Kineret and is full of swift flowing streams, historic sites and nature reserves.
The
Kineret played an important role in the early years of Christianity and
has now become a pilgrimage site for many Christians. According to
Christian tradition, Jesus lived, preached and performed miracles in
the Kineret and the surrounding region. It was here that he walked on
the water and the miracle of the loaves and the fishes happened in
nearby Kfar Nakhum (Capernaum). There are many Christian holy sites around the Kineret, including the Mount of Beatitudes, the Church of the Loaves and the Fishes, Kfar Nakhum, Kursi, and the wooden boat
discovered in the lake and now on display at Kibbutz Ginosar. Other
nearby historic sites include Migdal, Tel Hadar, Ubeidiya (Israel’s
most important prehistoric site), Beit Tsida, Kibbutz Dganya Alef,
Moshavat Kineret and the city of Tiberias.