The Real Nazareth?

The Real Nazareth? Part 2

Har Nitai

A mile-and-a-half west of the Sea of Galilee is a hill that fits the Bible's description of the site of Nazareth. That hill is fourteen miles northeast of traditonal Nazareth. On one side of the hill is a cliff. On top of the hill are the ruins of an ancient town. The hill is currently named "Har Nitai", which means "Mount Nitai". Nitai was an ancient Jewish sage mentioned in the Jewish Talmud. Nitai's full name, as recorded in the Talmud, was "Nitai the Arbelite."6

Har Nitai is near the western coastline of the Sea of Galilee. That area was the center of Jesus' Galilean ministry. To reach Har Nitai's ruins on foot, one must trek across forsaken wilderness overgrown with thornbushes. There is no trail. It is best to hike to the ruins on a hot or cold day, since poisonous snakes may come out when temperatures are comfortable. I encountered a long brown fast-moving poisonous snake on Har Nitai's hilltop on a warm breezy spring evening, around sunset. A snakebite could be lethal on this hilltop, since nobody seems to visit the ruins there, and thus a person with a snakebite may have a difficult time getting to a hospital.

In April, 1998, I met with Dr. Rudolph Cohen, Israel's director of archaeology, in his office at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem, Israel. Dr. Cohen told me that the ancient town that was once at the summit of Har Nitai is unidentified and unexcavated.

Above is Har Nitai as seen from the summit of Arbel, to the southeast. To get a perspective of the size of Har Nitai, note the caves in the cliff, the trees on the far-side of the hilltop, the road to the right of the hill, and the creek at the bottom of the hill to the left.

Above is a map that shows Har Nitai's location near the Sea of Galilee.

Above is a topographical map showing Har Nitai.7

The ancient town at Har Nitai apparently had a wall as its eastern boundary. The ruins of the wall are visible above. East of the wall is a field. Beyond the field is the brow of the hill, or the cliff. This photograph was taken from the southeast.

Above is a closeup look at the ruins of the wall on Har Nitai. The wall has crumbled to become a
huge pile of rocks that runs north and south across the hilltop. The bulges along the wall are the ruins
of citadels. This photograph was taken from a citadel near the southern end of the wall, looking north.

Above is one of the citadels along the wall on Har Nitai. The citadel's foundation
is still somewhat intact, as can be seen by the circular stack of rocks.

Continue to part 3: "More Photographs; Conclusion"

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Footnotes

6 The Soncino Talmud, Chagigah 16a. From Davka Corporation's Judaic Classics Library Version IIb1. Brooklyn, NY: Judaica Press, 1995.

7 From map #1 (1:100,000) of a 6 map collection. The words on the cover of the package containing the collection are written in Hebrew without vowel points. They appear to read "Shamorot Tava Ganim Lomim Vatrim Orkholugim b'Yisrael."