Abandoned Mosque in Israel Has Story to Tell

A few centuries ago when Israel was a province in the Ottoman Empire, a small mosque was built on the western shore of the Kinneret, the Sea of Galilee. The mosque was named Masgid al-Bakhri, the Mosque by the Sea, because when it was built, it was so close to the water line that the fishermen who fished the small fresh water lake could haul their boats on shore and find themselves at its doors, ready for prayers. The mosque was one of two in the backwater village of Tiberias, a city built almost exactly two millennia ago by the Roman emperor Tiberius to cater to visitors to the volcanic hot springs located just to its south, springs that were always thought to have healing properties and that still exist today.