How big is the Sea of Galilee?

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The Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake about 21 km long from north to south and up to 13 km wide, with an area of about 166 square kilometres and a greatest depth of about 43 m; its surface lies between about 209 and 215 m below the level of the Mediterranean, depending on the year, which makes it the lowest freshwater lake on earth. The map point stands in the middle of it, about 120 km north of Jerusalem in a straight line; Capernaum on the northern shore and Tiberias on the western are 12 km apart. The Bible calls it by several names: “the sea of Chinnereth” in the Law and Joshua, “the lake of Gennesaret” in Luke, and “the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias” in John, after the city Herod Antipas built on its shore about AD 20. Jesus called his first disciples here, “walking by the sea of Galilee”, taught from a boat, crossed it many times, and was caught on it in a storm when “the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full”. Such storms are real: the lake lies in a deep trench, and winds pouring down the gorges from the heights on either side can raise it in minutes. Josephus, who commanded Galilee in the war of AD 66, says the lake is 140 stadia long and 40 broad, about 26 by 7 km, its water sweet and good to drink; a fishing boat of his time, found in the mud of the western shore in 1986 when the water fell low, is 8.2 m long and was built for a crew of five, four rowers and a helmsman; its excavator reckoned it could carry about fifteen men in all. The lake's level has dropped in recent decades as Israel pumped it for water, so that the shore of the Gospels now often lies some way back from the water.