Kursi is an area that features a national park along with the ruins of a large Byzantine monastery on the shores of Lake Tiberias, on the western slope of the Golan Heights.
Kursi is known as the place where Jesus Christ performed miracles to tame the storm on Lake Galilee and cast out demons from the Gadarene demoniac into a herd of pigs.
The monastery existed here until 741, when it was destroyed by an earthquake and abandoned by Christians. In the second half of the VIII century, Arabs settled in the monastery and the church attached to it, who made their own changes to the layout of the place.
On the side of the nearby hill, a steep path leads up to the exact rock from which the herd of swine were driven off into the sea.
In the Gospel of Luke, about the miracles of taming the storm on Lake Galilee and healing the Gadarene demoniac, it is narrated:
One day He went into a boat with His disciples and said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side of the lake." And off we went. While they were sailing, He fell asleep. A violent wind rose on the lake, and flooded them with waves, and they were in danger. And when they came up, they woke Him up and said, "Master! Mentor! We are dying. But he arose, and forbade the wind and the agitation of the waters; And they stopped, and there was silence. Then He said to them, "Where is your faith?" And they said to one another in fear and wonder, "Who is this, that commands the winds and the waters, and obeys Him?" And they sailed to the country of Gadarene, lying opposite Galilee. When He came ashore, He was met by a man from the city, who had been possessed by demons for a long time, and did not dress in clothes, and lived not in a house, but in coffins. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and said with a loud voice, "What do you care about me, Jesus, the Son of God the Most High?" I beg you not to torture me. For Jesus commanded an unclean spirit to come out of this man, because he had tormented him for a long time, so that he was bound with chains and bonds, preserving him; But he broke the bonds and was persecuted by a demon in the wilderness. Jesus asked him, "What's your name?" He said, "Legion," because many demons have entered into it. And they begged Jesus not to command them to go into the abyss. A large herd of pigs was grazing on the mountain; and the demons begged Him to allow them to enter into them. The demons, coming out of the man, went into the pigs, and the herd threw itself down the steep slope into the lake and drowned. The shepherds, seeing what had happened, ran and told in the city and in the villages. And they went out to see what had happened; And when they came to Jesus, they found a man from whom the demons had come, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and of sound mind; And they were horrified. Those who saw told them how the demoniac was healed. And all the people of the Gadarene neighbourhood asked Him to depart from them, because they were seized with great fear. He got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons came asked Him to be with Him. But Jesus let him go, saying, "Go back to your house and tell me what God has done for you." He went and preached throughout the city what Jesus had done for him. (Luke 8:22-39)
In 1970, during road works, this area was discovered by accident. The walls of the monastery were identified and subsequently, archaeological work began and was headed by V. Tsaferis and D. Urman on behalf of Department of Antiquities. Excavations have restored the ruins and excavated chapel on the hill. Kursi Monastery was opened to the public in 1982 as a national park.
