Hamat Tiberias
Hamat Tiberias is an ancient archaeological site and an Israeli national park known as Hamat Tverya National Park which is located on the Tiberias-Zemach road that runs along the shore of the Sea of Galilee to Tiberias.
Name
Hammath or Hamma is the Hebrew and Semitic word for "hot spring." The Hebrew possessive plural is hamei-. It is adjacent to the ancient city of Tiberias, which was established in the first century CE and is now called ""Tveriya," thus the springs and the resort are called Hamei Tveriya. Since several places bore the name "Hammath", the distinction was made here by adding Tiberias/Tveriya to the name. Spelling vary for both parts of the Hebrew name. The Arabic name uses the cognate word: Al-Hammam.
History
The 17 springs of Hamat Tiberias have been known since antiquity for their curative properties. The site was rediscovered in 1920 when the Tiberias-Samakh road was being constructed.
The Hamei Tveriya natural hot springs are located on the grounds of the park. According to the sages of the Talmud, the springs were heated when they streamed past the entrance of Hell. Archaeologists have concluded it was built on the ruins of the biblical city of Hammath. (Joshua 19:350 However the finds of the excavations are limited to the 1st-8th centuries CE.
Hamat
Hamat is a village in Lebanon. It is located 287 meters atop the historic cape of Theoprosopon. It is home to the historic shrine and monastery of Our Lady of Nourieh. The village is also home to Saint Elias Monastery, which overlooks the Jawz River, or the River of Walnuts and the ancient Phoenician coastal town of Batroun. The locals are Orthodox Christians.
References
Tiberias
Tiberias (/taɪˈbɪəriəs/; Hebrew: טְבֶרְיָה, Tveria, Tiveria 
(audio) ; Arabic: طبرية, Ṭabariyyah; Ancient Greek: Τιβεριάς Tiberiás) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee (called "the Kinneret" in Hebrew), Lower Galilee. Established in 20 CE, it was named in honour of the emperor Tiberius.
Tiberias was venerated in Judaism from the middle of the 2nd century CE and since the 16th century has been considered one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Safed. In the 2nd–10th centuries, Tiberias was the largest Jewish city in the Galilee and the political and religious hub of the Jews of Israel. It has been known for its hot springs, believed to cure skin and other ailments, for thousands of years.
History
Roman period
Tiberias was founded sometime around 20 CE in Herodian Tetrarchy of Galilee and Peraea by the Roman client king Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great. Herod Antipas made it the capital of his realm in the Galilee and named it for the Roman Emperor Tiberius. The city was built as a spa and developed around 17 natural mineral hot springs (Hamat Tiberias). It was populated mainly by Jews, with its growing spiritual and religious status exerting a strong influence on balneological practices. The Jewish oral tradition holds that Tiberias was built on the site of the Israelite and later Jewish village of Rakkat, first mentioned in the Book of Joshua. In Talmudic times, the Jews still referred to it by this name. Conversely, in The Antiquities of the Jews, the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus calls the village with hot springs Emmaus, located near Tiberias. This name also appears in The Wars of the Jews.
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