Kinneret (archaeological site)

Coordinates: 32°51′38″N 35°30′26″E / 32.86056°N 35.50722°E / 32.86056; 35.50722

Kinneret (Hebrew: כִּנֶּרֶת) is the name of an important Bronze and Iron Age city situated on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, mentioned in the Old Testament and in the Aqhat Epic of Ugarit. Older Bible translations name Kinneret alternatively Kinnereth or Chinnereth. The name evolved in time to become Gennesaret and Ginosar (Hebrew: גִּנֵּיסַר).

Due to its prominence, the city gave its name to the lake for long periods of history, as the Sea of Kinneret, Kinnerot, Gennesaret or Ginosar, the last two mirroring the transformation of the name. "Gennesaret" is the Grecized form of Kinneret.

The name is also used for the "Plain of Gennesaret". For beauty and fertility this is called "the Paradise of Galilee". Its modern names are Plain of Ginosar (translated from Hebrew) and el-Ghuweir in Arabic.

The present-day Israeli Kibbutz Ginosar derives its name from the ancient town, though it is not located on its precise site. Even more remote, on the southeastern shore of the lake, are the two settlements of Moshavat Kinneret and Kvutzat Kinneret.