Terme Tiberiade — Hammat

Terme Tiberiade Hammat draws bicarbonated mineral springs at Hammat Tiberias on the southwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, where hot springs at 60 degrees Celsius have been used for therapeutic bathing since Hellenistic times and the Hammat synagogue mosaics, among the finest examples of ancient Jewish figural art in existence, lie within metres of the thermal spring outlets that have defined this site for two thousand years of continuous use. Tiberias is one of the four cities of Jewish holiness, alongside Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed, and the tomb of Maimonides, the twelfth-century philosopher, physician, and Torah commentator whose Guide for the Perplexed synthesised Aristotelian rationalism and Jewish theology in the most influential work of medieval Jewish thought, is located in the city centre, giving Tiberias an intellectual and spiritual gravity that the Galilee shoreline's natural beauty reinforces rather than dilutes. The hot bicarbonated springs of Hammat, now incorporated into a national park alongside the ancient synagogue and the Roman-period thermal ruins, continue to flow into therapeutic baths used by visitors from across Israel and the region in a setting where the specific mineral composition of the water, the historical depth of the site, and the beauty of the Galilean hills meeting the lake create a thermal destination of remarkable authenticity.