The Lake of Gennesareth is also known as the Sea of Tiberias, or Kinnerèth, and the Arabs gave it the name Bahr Tabarija. The Lord Jesus had been here at the beach as well as on the water with the fishermen. The lake is 21 kilometers long, 12 kilometers wide; the water is 48 meters deep—abounding in fish.

Have you wondered what the fishing boats looked like? That question has been answered by two men in 1980, when they found a ship from the time when Jesus was present. It had laid deeply sunken in the bottom of the lake. Reuven Ben-Dori and Yehuda Smadar carefully restored the ship, which gave them the idea of building a ship of the same shape, but twice as big, with the purpose of giving tourists the opportunity to sail in it.

They could not find a company in Israel who could help them with this but they discovered shipbuilders in Dumiad, 300 kilometers from Cairo, Egypt. They specialized in making original sailing ships for transportation on the Nile River, using traditional wood. They went with them to a village at Kinnerèth and all the inhabitants helped them. The supervisor was an engineer from Haifa named Ya’acov Schlechterman who had worked at the carpenter’s yards in Dumiad. The ship built is 16.5 meters long and 5.2 meters wide and it can hold 55 people. The wood came from the mulberry tree and the eucalyptus tree. Yehuda Smadar shows his passengers how the disciples once fished. Meanwhile a second ship has been built and the ships have been named after Peter and John. Reuven Ben-Dori built a special landing area. The picture comes from the “Jerusalem Post.”