Denarius of Tiberius (Roman emperor AD 14-37). The coin was the daily wage of a labourer.
Painting of the Last Supper in the Temptation Monastery.
The lake of Galilee, the centre of Jesus’ early ministry, is about 13 miles (21 km) from north to south, 8 miles (13 km) across at is widest point. On the far (eastern) side are the Golan Heights
A model of the ‘Jesus boat’, a first century fishing boat excavated from the shore of the Sea of Galilee in 1986. It enables us to know in detail how a boat of Jesus’ time was constructed and what materials were used. The boat’s remains are housed in Kibbutz Ginosar, on the western side of the Lake.
Early morning fishing on the Lake
Ruins of the Byzantine monastery at Kursi on the north-east coast of the Sea of Galilee, claimed by tradition as the site of the ‘miracle of the pigs’ (Mark 5:1-20).
Scythopolis (in the OT, Beth Shean), a location in the Jordan Valley continuously occupied since 4000 BC. It was a significant city in Jesus’ time as one of the ten cities forming the ‘Decapolis’ (Matt 4:25; Mark 5:20). The magnificent main street dates only from the 6th century AD.
Scythopolis, colonnaded street
The cave at the foot of Mt Hermon, from which the River Jordan once flowed, before earthquakes diverted it. The area was sacred to Pan, the Greek god of nature, shepherd and flocks.
Caesarea Philippi longer view
Caesarea Philippi, shrines related to worship of Pan.
The area in the first century (artist’s impression). Though the area is dedicated to Pan, the most impressive buildings are the temples of the emperor Augustus (left) and (probably) the god Zeus (centre).
Mount Tabor rises from the surrounding plain. By the fourth century the tradition was established that this was the location of Jesus’ transfiguration (Mark 9:2-13).
Mt Tabor, the Catholic basilica
Inside the Mt Tabor basilica is a mosaic depicting the transfiguration
Tyrian half-shekel coin, dated AD 36-37. Because its purity could be relied on, this is the coinage in which Jews had to pay their annual tax to the temple (Matthew 17:24).
Gethsemane. In an olive grove such as this Jesus prayed on the night of his arrest.
Crucifixion was a slow and painful way to die. In 1968 the remains of a man who had been crucified were discovered in Jerusalem. The photo shows that a nail driven through the victim’s heel bone held his feet to the cross.
Inside the Holy Sepulchre church, a mosaic depicts Jesus’ body being taken down from the cross.
The Garden Tomb, popularized as Golgotha by General Gordon of Khartoum in1883. The real place of Jesus’ burial is far more likely to have been where the Holy Sepulchre church now stands, but this tomb shows clearly how a body would be laid on the stone floor, with the head on the slightly raised ‘pillow’ at the far end.
Garden tomb interior
A first century rock-hewn tomb inside the Holy Sepulchre Church.
A tomb with rolling stone, near Mt Carmel.
The distinctive domes of the Holy Sepulchre church. The emperor Constantine built the first church here in the early 4th century. It was destroyed by the Moslem caliph Hakim in 1009. After rebuilding during the following 150 years the church has remained substantially as it was then.
Inside the Holy Sepulchre church, this elaborate monument over what is believed to be the place of Jesus’ burial dates only from the early 19th century, when it replaced an earlier structure destroyed by fire.
Holy Sepulchre church, mosaic of Christos Pantocrator (‘Almighty’) in the dome.
While the main church is mostly Roman Catholic, Christians of some other traditions have their altars and shrines. A community of Ethiopian monks lives here on the church’s roof and worships in a small chapel en route from here to the inside of the church.
