Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee

Capernaum sits on a low basalt outcrop above the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, so flat and open that the lake horizon is visible in three directions and the mountains of the Golan Heights close the view to the north and east. On a calm morning the water reflects the hills in a way that makes the biblical geography suddenly concrete: you can see why a fisherman from this village would think of the lake as the centre of the world.

The white octagonal Church of the Seven Apostles, built in 1990 over the ruins of an earlier Byzantine church, is the most visible structure, its stark modern geometry contrasting with the black basalt rubble of the ancient synagogue nearby. The church was built over what tradition identifies as the house of Saint Peter, and the excavations beneath the floor show a 1st-century fishing village of modest stone houses that would have been home to a community of perhaps a few hundred people.

The 4th-century synagogue is a different experience: built of local basalt and white limestone in the style of Galilean synagogues of the period, it is large enough to have seated several hundred worshippers and its carved decoration includes stylized vines, lions and a zodiac wheel that is one of the most complete to survive from ancient synagogues in the region.

The excavations around the church are ongoing, and what they have revealed is remarkable: a 1st-century domestic structure with a dedicatory inscription in Greek that mentions a Roman centurion named Julius, suggesting the building was associated with a person of Roman military standing in the 1st century.

The Sea of Galilee itself is the best thing about Capernaum: on a spring morning with the mountains reflected in the water and the sound of the wind off the lake, the place earns its status as a site that has been continuously sacred for two thousand years.

The Franciscan ownership and management of the site since the 20th century has left its mark: the neat paths, the interpretive signs in multiple languages and the carefully maintained church grounds are the work of a religious community that takes the site very seriously as a place of pilgrimage and worship.

There is a small fishermen's settlement still active on the shore below the ruins, and watching a fisherman on the lake in the early morning with the outline of the basalt outcrop and the church above is one of those moments where the biblical world and the contemporary world briefly coincide without either one feeling like a performance.

Capernaum is the most significant New Testament site in Israel outside Jerusalem and Nazareth: it was the base of Jesus of Nazareths Galilean ministry and the home of several of his disciples including Peter, Andrew, James, John and Matthew.

The 4th-century Galilean synagogue and the 1st-century domestic remains under the modern church are both well preserved and give a tangible sense of what the village looked like in the 1st century.

The Sea of Galilee at Capernaum is a powerful landscape that does not require a particular religious perspective to appreciate.