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----------------------By Shmuel Sokol

The history of the Jewish, Medieval Catholic and Muslim rule in the Holy Land and the ongoing fight for control isencapsulated by one site perched on the shore in the Upper Galilee town of Tiberius.

In light of the upcoming visit of the new Pope, Benedict XVI, it seems appropriate to take a close look at the progressmade in uncovering Christian history in the Holy Land since the last Papal visit in 2000.

Dr. Yosef Stepansky, former inspector of antiquities in the Eastern Galilee for the Israeli government, spoke with theIsrael Resource News Agency about his discovery of a crusader Citadel on the shore of Lake Kinneret. This citadeland its fall are crucial for understanding the story of the deterioration of Crusader rule in the land of Israel.

An expert on Christian archeological sites, Dr. Stepansky wrote the archeological chapters of the nomination dossier for the Israeli government on early Christian sites around the Sea of Galilee that will soon be declared as worldheritage sites. It is unknown as of yet if the Catholic Church will utilize his services during the upcoming Papal visit,but it would not be without precedent as he was called upon in 2000 to write a briefing for Pope John Paul II duringhis Israel tour. In that brief Dr. Stepansky discussed the Galilean Dolmens -megalithic stone tombs dating from theMiddle Bronze Age-, which he identifies with the Biblical narratives regarding giants called Refaim and with thegiant bedstead of Iron that is mentioned as the resting place of Og king of Bashan. He also linked the Dolmens withthe tombs mentioned in the book of Mark where outcasts from the surrounding towns lived after banishment.

He has made important discoveries pertaining to early Christianity in the Galilee, including a stone lintel which wasinscribed with the name of Byzantine Christian emperor Constantine and those of his sons. This Lintel, currently inpossession of a Druze man in the village of Maghar, is the only known inscription referring to the emperor in all of Israel.

Tiberius Crusader Castle: Time Capsule of the Galilee

The history of the Jewish, Medieval Catholic and Moslem rule in the Holy Land and the ongoing fight for control isencapsulated by one site perched next to a River in the Upper Galilee town of Tiberius.

In 1187, Christian rule, which had lasted for the better part of a century, was about to end. The Christians and

Muslims had been fighting over the same ground over and over, and Saladin, the Muslim ruler of Egypt and Syriawished to make his territory contiguous. This of course meant conquering Israel. Soon he was provided with a casusbelli in the form of Renaud of Chatillon, the crusader prince of Antioch.

According to Dr. Stepansky The Crusaders and the Muslims played Ping-Pong for years, each invading the othersterritory, moving their borders back and forth. That was until Renaud of Chatillon started harassing Muslim pilgrimson their way to Mecca. The final straw was when he set out from Aylah to raid the holy city. Saladin organized hisforces and moved over the northern Jordan into Galilee.

It was the crusader citadel in Tiberius, perched on the shores of Lake Kinneret that brought about the defeat of thecrusaders in the most significant battle in Israel in the past 1000 years, the battle of the Horns of Hittin.

When Saladin began to move into Israel Raymond of Tripoli, the ruler of the Galilee, reported to King Guy of

Jerusalem in Sepphoris to help defend against the Muslim incursion. He left behind his wife Eschiva with a smallgarrison to defend his castle in Tiberius.

On the 2 nd of July, 1187, Saladin broke through the walls of Tiberius and put siege to Raymonds castle. Eschiva senta messenger with a call to her husband and King Guy of Jerusalem. They now had a quandary. Should they marchon Tiberius to break the siege or should they wait for Saladin to arrive, and meet him on ground of their ownchoosing?

Ultimately, the order of the Knights Templar, formed to protect Christian pilgrims from Muslim attack, ventured theopinion that it would be unbecoming of Christian knights to not attempt to rescue a princess and that they should

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march of Tiberius immediately. The King agreed.

He began to move on Tiberius in order to retake the town along with over a thousand horsemen and 20,000 footsoldiers. They marched through scorching heat and blazing sun, suffering greatly from thirst and dehydration. Twodays later, on the 4 th of July, the Crusaders set up camp at Maskaneh on the slopes of the Horns of Hittin, near themodern day Golani Junction [Heb. Tzomet Golani].

It was then that Saladin made his move. In the morning the Muslims attacked. Amidst great blood and suffering themostly Frankish knights, suffering greatly from their lack of water, were defeated. King Guy was taken prisoner andbrought before Saladin, where he was shown mercy, though Saladin personally killed Renaud of Chatillon by thesword.

There were to be other crusades and the Christians maintained a presence in the holy land until 1291, but it was thebeginning of the end. Christian rule in the holy land had been shattered in one decisive battle.

In the years since, the exact location of the Tiberius Citadel, whose siege started it all, was lost.

Beneath Grandmothers house

In 2002 Dr. Stepansky uncovered the Citadels gate and moat, ending years of scholarly debate.

Until his discovery, the prevailing view was that the castle had been built uphill, away from the water. There had beensome who started arguing in the 1970s that a lakeside location was more probable, but it was impossible to verifywithout actually finding and uncovering the structure.

In the 1950s the nascent Jewish state, in an attempt at urban renewal, bulldozed the Old City of Tiberius. The OldCity could more accurately be termed the renewed city, having been built up and settled by Sepharadi (Eastern)Jews in the 18 th century.

One of the structures destroyed was the house in which Dr. Stepanskys grandmother had been born.

In the early 2000s, the Israeli government again decided to embark on a project of urban renewal. The tourismministry put plans on the table to develop the area, but was forced to wait while the antiquities authority carried out a

pre-development survey, a practice very common in Israel.

This is where Dr. Stepansky came in. Doing a routine dig at the site, he discovered one of the most significantarcheological finds of the early 21 st century, right below the location of his old family home.

Because of this discovery, which is an integral part of the story of the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, he was invited tolecture in Germany and his scholarly article on the Citadel was translated and included in the definitive work onCrusader castles, Burgen und Stadte der Kreuzugszeit .

When I lectured in Germany people were most interested and jealous of the castle I found, even though it still hasyielded small remains relative to the other castles found so far. Yet it was a source of jealousy that I could do what israre and excavate underneath the house that my grandmother was born in. Dr. Stepansky stated.

Cycle of historyThere were stones used by the crusaders in building their Citadel that were originally part of an ancient synagogue.What one can discern if they look carefully is a window into the history of Israel itself. One can see a crusader castle,built on the ruins of an independent Judea, conquered by the Moslems and later excavated by a reborn Jewishnation in its homeland, all of this underneath a little lot where the grandmother of the man who discovered the sitelived.

As Dr. Stepansky put it, [this] is the climax of this series of history.

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Artists rendering of the gate of the Tiberius crusader citadel, drawn to Dr. Yosef Stepanskys specifications.