Tiberias Photo: David Rubinger/Corbis

Town in northeasternIsrael with 40,000 inhabitants (2008 estimate), at the western shore of Sea of Galilee, in a depression 205 metres below sea level.
The economic base of the town is agriculture, fishing and tourism. Tiberias is an important city in the theological development of Judaism.

History
19 CE: Founded by Herod Antipod.
70: With the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, many Jewish scholars moved to Tiberias. The town became centre of the highest religious court.
3rd-5th centuries: Much of the Palestinian Talmud is written down by Jewish scholars stationed in Tiberius.
1922: The Jews become majority of Tiberius.