On the Northeast side of the Sea of Galilee, we are entering the area of the Golan Heights…where all the conflict was happening round about the 1990s, among other times. There are still mine field signs right by the road, so one doesn’t want to go wandering off on one’s own just there. Yikes!
This area is east of Capernaum, where Jesus began his ministry, where Peter’s house was, and the first church there, etc. This is the place were there were tombs that were roamed by the wretched refuse of society, like for instance the demon-possessed man. There were no chains that could hold him, and he was quite the public nuisance, so they banished him to this area on the northeast side of the Sea of Galilee. If a young archaeologist were inclined to search among the minefields of this area, perhaps remnants of the tombs would be found, but as it is, no one is going to go poking around up in these hills for the ancient burial sites that are indicated to be there by Scripture.
If you remember the story of the demon possessed man that Jesus healed from Mark 5:1-20, you might remember that the demons that were possessing him were many, and they called themselves “Legion.” Legion begged Jesus not to send them to the pit, and instead asked to be driven into a nearby herd of pigs which then ran off a cliff and were drowned. This is the area that this happened in. The exact hill is not known, but it is not hard to imagine this story when you see this landscape.
It is steep, and a drop-off straight to the water. The green grassy area at the bottom of this hill would have been underwater at the time of Jesus, as the water level is lower than usual now. Right by where we stopped to look over this cliff, there were the remnants of an old bunker used by snipers to shoot at local fisherman, nice, huh.
Here is Evan standing on top of the bunker.
And there is your random land mine warning sign. This area was cleared as an overlook, but…you know…not something you see every day.
For some perspective, from this lookout on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee, we can see where we were this morning, Mt Arbel…the drop-off seen across the water.
How pretty is that!
So to wrap it up for this site…Mark 5:20 speaks of the healed man telling his story in the Decapolis. The Decapolis is a collection of 10 cities of this region, all a part of the Roman Empire and ruled by Herod the Great, and then his sons: Herod Antipas, Phillip the Tetrarch, and Herod Archelaus. One of those cities of the Decapolis is Hippus or Sussita which is the area of Kursi, right where we were standing, and another is Bet She’an…you’ll hear more about that spot later…stay tuned!