Biblical Bethsaida was found a couple of kilometers from Lake Kinneret

Bethsaida from the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament - the same one from which the apostles Peter, Andrew and Philip came from, and where the Lord Jesus Christ multiplied the loaves, healed the blind man and walked on the waters - was found two kilometers from Lake Kinneret, in the Gospels called the Sea of Galilee.

It took scientists thirty-two years of research to pinpoint the location of this settlement. The latest excavation results have confirmed the hypothesis that the ruins at Et-Tel are what remains of the biblical village. The mention of the ancient historian Flavius Josephus that Bethsaida is located in the Golan Heights helped to clarify the search area.
The same Flavius writes that later this settlement received the status of a city and was renamed Juliade. Archaeologists managed to find a temple in Et-Tel and identify it as the Roman sanctuary of Julia. This was another important confirmation of the hypothesis that Bethsaida was located in this very place.

Although the Gospels say that Bethsaida was located directly on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, modern scientists reasonably note that over two millennia, the coastline of Lake Kinneret could have seriously changed: 'due to tectonic processes and fluctuations in water level,' says research leader Rami Arav, professor from the University of Nebraska. An indirect confirmation of this is the finds in Et-Tel of the remains of ancient fishing gear.
In the Holy Scriptures, the Lord says that the fate of Bethsaida, due to the unbelief of its inhabitants, will be worse than that of Sodom. Perhaps some disasters by the will of the Lord God and touched this place in ancient times, however, according to the results of modern research, it was finally empty only in the IV century AD.

Photo: National Geographic Russia