Mount Berenice

Mount Berenice is a mountain in the Galilee, located near the Sea of Galilee south of Tiberias. The height of the mountain is about 190 meters above sea level. Remains of a Byzantine church and a mosque from the 8th century AD were found on the mountain.^[1]

Herod Antipas had a magnificent palace in Tiberias, which may have been the palace of the princess Berenice, about whom Josephus told in his writings, hence the name of the mountain "Mount Berenice". During the Byzantine period, in the sixth century, a church was built on the eastern peak of the mountain, possibly on the ruins of the palace of Antipas.^[1] The church was a magnificent building with an area of about 1,400 square meters. At the heart of the church stood a monolithic stone that was used as a sacred relic, and apparently was connected to the story of Jesus' activity in the Sea of Galilee.

Emperor Justinian I built a wall, which reached from Tiberias to the western peak of the mountain, and ended with two towers that are 15 meters high and each of their sides is 7.5 meters long.^[1] In the 749 Galilee earthquake, the buildings on the mountain were destroyed, including the church, but it was renovated again in the early Muslim period, during the eighth century and was used as a church until after the Battle of Hattin, in which the Crusaders lost leading to the end of their kingdom in the Land of Israel about 100 years later.

After the destruction of the church, the place remained desolate for many years. In 1990, archaeologist Yizhar Hirschfeld began excavating the site. No remains have been found of Berenice's palace, but a Byzantine church, and remains of a wall and tower have been uncovered.^[1] The Jewish National Fund opened a road leading from the upper neighborhoods of Tiberias to the site. A Roman theater was discovered on the side of the mountain by archaeologists Yizhar Hirschfeld and Yosef Stefansky, with about 5,000-6,000 seats. The municipality of Tiberias plans to turn the amphitheater into a performance center and integrate it into The Berko Archaeological Park, an archaeological park in the south of Tiberias, which includes archaeological finds from the Roman period.^[2]

Another building was uncovered near the church, and the hypothesis was that it was used as a market during the Byzantine period of the city. In 2009, archaeologist Katia Tzitrin-Silverman from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem discovered that the building was used as a mosque,^[2] and it is possible that the church and the mosque operated side by side at the same time, each serving its own community. Similar mosques from the same period were discovered in Damascus and the city of Jerash in Jordan.