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Photo: Deror_avi, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This revered rabbi, who died in 1204, was one of 12th-century Egypt's most highly regarded sages, while working as a doctor in the court of the Muslim ruler Saladin. Legend has it that before his death in Cairo, he instructed followers to load his remains onto a camel and bury him wherever the camel expired. The camel was apparently drawn to Tiberias. Next to the grave is the Maimonides Heritage Center museum. Also buried here is Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakkai, the leading rabbi at the time of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. Ben Zakkai is said to have faked his own death, escaping the city hidden in a coffin, and then prophesizing that the Roman general Vespasian would become the new Caesar. When the prophecy came true, Ben Zakkai was granted one wish by the new leader; a Jewish learning centre for him and students.
According to Jewish tradition, the Tomb of Maimonides is located in Tiberias, Israel. Although Maimonides, a Sephardic Jew, died in Fustat, Egypt, on 12 December 1204, it is believed that he was only briefly buried in Fustat before being reinterred in Tiberias. Others say his tomb is in Musky, Cairo. Owing to his recognition as a prominent Jewish philosopher, his tomb is one of Israel's most important Jewish pilgrimage sites and is also among Tiberias' most visited tourist attractions. The site also serves as the burial place of Yohanan ben Zakkai, a prominent Tanna of the Second Temple period; and Isaiah Horowitz, a prominent Jewish mystic of the 16th/17th century. In 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared it a national heritage site.
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The Citadel
The Turkish citadel was the highest point in the old town. It now houses an art gallery.
Dona Gracia Nasi was a wealthy 16th-century Jewish woman. In 1558, the Ottoman Empire granted her control of the Tiberias region in exchange for an increase in tax revenue. She began to rebuild the abandoned villages in the area, hoping that Jewish refugees would be able to settle there. However, she died not too long afterwards in 1569. She is seen as an early predecessor of the Zionist movement, and all the more notable because female leaders were rare at the time. This museum is dedicated to her story. There is also a hotel located next to the museum, if you need a place to stay.
This was a small Scottish colony during the 19th century. It now houses a boutique hotel and a church.
This used to be Tiberias' central square, with a mosque at its centre.
As out of place as a pin-stripe suited gent at a teenage rave, the dignified little mosque looks threatened and lost squeezed between some gaudy shops and a brusque concrete supermarket. Built by Daher al-Omar in the mid-18th century, the mosque is one of the very few buildings in Tiberias that predates 1948. It is generally held that its construction was partly paid for by the town's Jewish community, presumably grateful to the sheikh for being permitted to return.
Hidden along the northern promenade, it is worth looking out for the lovely Franciscan church built by 12th-century Crusaders. The Muslims converted it into a mosque, and you can make out an area of uneven stone on the southern wall filling in the hole where a mihrab (prayer niche indicating the direction of Mecca) was carved. Later, the Turks used the building as a caravanserai before it was rebuilt as a church in 1870.