My dad had always had this question about the Bible: Why is it that the Sea of Galilee, being a relatively small lake, have such violent storms for Jesus to calm? Well, in April 2018, my family and I experienced those storms first hand. The night before, we had checked in at the Pilgerhaus, literally a pilgrim's inn founded and run by German missionaries. The next day, our packed itinerary indeed included important pilgrimage sites, notably Capernaum and the 2 old churches in Tabgha. We were, however, in for a bit of a surprise.

As afternoon came, the sky started turning brown and orange, and the rain started pouring heavily. Brown rain. Staining the car's windows and my raincoat. We were in for what the locals called a "dirty rain", which occurs when storms coming from the Red Sea pick up dust from the Negev Desert. The heavy rain and strange color of the whole place was accompanied by strong winds. I nearly had my raincoat ripped off me! It was then that it occured to us just how crazy the weather can get at this lake.

The Sea of Galilee is located in the Jordan Rift Valley, and it's fed and drained by the Jordan River. It's over 200 meters below sea level, which makes mere hills (in relation to sea level) appear quite tall, especially the Golan Heights on the other side of the lake. I reached the lake at 2 sites, at the shores near Pilgerhaus and at the Mensa Christi Church in Tabgha. From Pilgerhaus, a short trail through the bush (full of spiders, by the way) leads to the lake. The water there was quite shallow, clear, and home to some small fish. The Mensa Christi Church, better known as the church of St. Peter's Primacy, is at the town center of Tabgha and right next to the shore. It seems quite new, but contains the rock upon which Jesus is said to have entrusted the Church to Peter. Nearby is the Church of the Multiplication of Fish and Loaves, famous for its exquisite floor mosaics. A few kilometers up the shore is Capernaum, home to the Roman remains of the synagogue where Jesus once preached and Peter's house. 

The UNESCO document for this T-list site seems to say that the site would consist of the lake itself, for its natural values and religious symbolism, and the sites of Tabgha's Church of the Multiplication, Capernaum, and Korazim, which I discussed (quite optimistically) as one of the Early Synagogues T-list site. The lake is indeed a natural oddity, being located in its unique seismic and topographical setting, and it's home to a diverse population of fish, some species of which being endemic. While I'm not sure how exactly that fits in the natural criteria, it's an important pillar in the nomination, not unlike the situation of Lake Ohrid's historic monuments.

As for the cultural side of things, I think this is exactly the Biblical Galilee site the list needs. Unlike "The Galilee Journeys of Jesus & the Apostles" site, each of the historic sites chosen contains remains either from Jesus' time or from the following Christian Roman and Byzantine times showing the effect of early pilgrimage in the area. Perhaps Magdala and Bethsaida would make good additions to this, though unrelated sites like Tiberias, Horvat Minnim, and Hamat Gader would overcomplicate and take focus away from the core of the significance here. Furthermore, the Sea of Galilee itself acts as a unifying element between these sites, forming a coherent cultural landscape, and indeed one with great religious and historic significance that is concretely shown by the different sites around the lake. While some sites have slightly doubtful integrity (lookin' at you, Capernaum Church), and the nomination reasoning needs a lot of work, I think it's clear what needs to be focused on here. This should make a worthy cultural WHS, and maybe even mixed if more information can be supplied on the natural aspect of the lake. Overall, I definitely enjoyed my journeys around the Sea of Galilee, and I believe in its worldly significance as a cradle of Christianity, as well as having experienced its natural phenomena first-hand.