Sea of Galilee

The Sea of Galilee — Lake Tiberias in Frankish sources — was the freshwater heart of the Principality of Galilee. Tiberias, the principality's capital, stood on its western shore and controlled the crossings of the lower Jordan. Its freshwater fisheries supplied the garrison towns of the interior and the pilgrim hospices on the gospel shores.

Every Crusader pilgrim itinerary dwelt on the lake's gospel geography: Capernaum, the Mount of the Beatitudes, Magdala, and the Primacy of Peter at Tabgha. Boat-shaped reliquaries and pilgrim flasks filled with 'water from the Sea of Galilee' circulated widely in western Europe.

In July 1187 Saladin began his great campaign by besieging Count Raymond III's wife in the Tiberias citadel on the lake's western shore. Guy of Lusignan's march to relieve her across the parched basalt plateau — abandoning the safe spring at Sephorie — led directly to the annihilation of the Frankish army at the Horns of Hattin, the disaster that ended the first Kingdom of Jerusalem.