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* HIDDEN TREASURES OF
RUSSIA TOUR

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Cures And Crocodiles
Found In Tiberias

GABRIEL LEVENSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

L

egend has it that the health-
giving hot springs of this
lakeside town of Tiberias
owe their existence to the
wisdom of King Solomon. No
more immune to the stress of ur-
ban living • (even in holy
Jerusalem) than the rest of us
sedentary mortals, his majesty
developed an excruciating back-
ache — for which a panel of court
physicians recommmended heat-
ed baths as the only cure.
Whereupon, Solomon —

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Single Rates Available

The local population was large-
ly Jewish fishermen, but they
were denied the pleasure of
bathing in the complex of pools
which Roman hyrdraulic engi-
neers would contrive for a suc-
cession of overfed Caesars
conveyed to the spa to sweat off
excess poundage.
One such complex of hot baths
is in the area of 'Piberias; it was
known to the Greek historian,
Eunapeus, as the second largest
in the entire Roman Empire. It

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An archaeologist works on a Roman boat from the Sea of Galilee.

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among whose titles was Master
of the Demons, and who wanted
a really hot bath — dispatched a
work-crew of strong, young dev-
ils to the bowels of the earth to
heat up the underground waters.
Immersion in the hot springs
evidently helped the king, as it
has, in the 30 centuries since, the
thousands of other sufferers, en-
during a variety of ailments, who
have made the pilgrimage to this
pleasant spot on the shores of the
Sea of Galilee.
In turn, Israelites, Romans,
Arabs, Crusaders, Turks, mod-
em Israelis and now, increas-
ingly, Americans have enjoyed
the naturally heated baths, the
healing mud packs, the unfailing
sunshine and the succulent fish
(known locally as "St. Peter's")
which abound in the freshwater,
inland sea.
Herod Antipas, son of Herod
the Great, founded Tiberias in
the first centrury of the Common
Era, on the site of Rakkath, the
biblical town allotted by Joshua
to the tribe of Naphtali. Herod
named the new town "Tiberias,"
after the then-reigning Roman
emperor, Tiberius, and declared
it capital of Galilee.

has been revived and used again
in modern times since its exca-
vation by a team of Israeli ar-
chaeologists. The ancient baths
have been reopened as Hammat
Gader National Park, now one of
the country's most popular tourist
attractions.
Not the least of the park's fea-
tures are its facilities as a spa.
The natural hot spring water in
an open-air mineral pool contains
sulphur, chloride, calcium and
magnesium. The constant year-
around temperature is exactly
107.6 degrees. Adjoining are also
a covered pool, more than a dozen
water-massage installations and
a large bathhouse with showers
and changing rooms. Scheduled
Egged buses make the 12-mile
run frequerntly between Tiber-
tias itself and Hammat Park.
There is, happily, a continuity
between the ancient and modern.
Visitors can see the ruins of the
elaborate baths in which the Ro-
man emperors disported them-
selves: the caldarium, hot-water
pool; tepidarium, with luke-warm
water; and the frigidarium, the
cold-water pool from which the
shivering royalty would emerge
for a brisk towelling by their