Beatitudes And St Peter

After crossing the Sea of Galilee and exploring the Ancient Boat Museum, we started exploring the surrounding areas of the Sea of Galilee, mainly the supposed sites that Jesus had gone to, as well as the places Peter (St Peter), one of Jesus' most prominent disciple, had been in.

We started off with Mount of Beatitudes, the site that Jesus preached the Beatitudes. An octagonal shaped church stands on top of the mountain, which has a beautiful view of the Sea of Galilee. There is also a convent, a pilgrim house and a very big garden in its grounds. Incidentally, the Beatitudes are displayed on every octagonal arch inside the church.

 Church of the Beatitudes

 The Pilgrim House opposite the church

 Dome of the church

 Under the dome

A bit further down from the Mount of Beatitudes is the church at Tabgha. Tabgha was the site where Jesus performed the miracle of five loaves of bread and two fish. The church is a little quiet one with Roman architecture and a beautiful courtyard in the middle.

 The beautiful quaint little courtyard of the church

 The holy water

 Inside the church

 There are some very beautiful sunflowers blooming outside the church

I really like this sunflower!

Incidentally, this church in Tabgha is run by the Benedictines. After that we went down the hill next door to the Church of St Peter's Primacy, run by the Franciscan. This is the site where Jesus supposedly told Peter to be "fisher of men", and the church itself is built right by the Sea of Galilee.

 Entrance of the Church of St Peter's Primacy

 Israel is very strict when it comes to appropriate dress code, especially when it comes to their holy sites.

 One part of the church

 Interior of the church

 Apparently, this was the stone that Jesus had touched

 Can you see the church is just next to the Sea of Galilee?

 Reminds me of an old Roman amphitheatre

After this, we went on to the nearby town of Capernaum, where Peter stayed with his mother-in-law, and where Jesus went to and stayed for a while with Peter after he came out from Nazareth and crossed the Sea of Galilee.

Capernaum is mostly in ruins now, and where Peter house used to be, a modern structure now stands over it. There is still the remnants of a white synagogue though, which was supposed to be the place Jesus prayed.

Remnants of Peter's house

 This modern structure now stands on top of the remnants of Peter's house

I believe this is a statue of St Peter

After this, we went to a restaurant serving St Peter's fish for lunch, then went down to the Jordan River baptism site, which I will cover in the next post, before going back to Tiberias city for the Galilee Experience. And that concludes our second day in Israel.