Galilee (/ˈɡælɪliː/;[1] Hebrew: הַגָּלִיל, romanized: hagGālīl; Latin: Galilaea;[2] Arabic: الجليل, romanized: al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (הגליל העליון, ha-galil ha-elyon; الجليل الأعلى, al-jalīl al-aʾlā) and Lower Galilee (גליל תחתון, galil tahton; الجليل الأسفل, al-jalīl al-asfal).
Galilee refers to all of the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and south of the east–west section of the Litani River. It extends from the Israeli coastal plain and the shores of the Mediterranean Sea with Acre in the west, to the Jordan Rift Valley to the east; and from the Litani in the north plus a piece bordering on the Golan Heights all the way to Dan at the base of Mount Hermon in the northeast, to Mount Carmel and Mount Gilboa in the south.
This definition includes the plains of the Jezreel Valley north of Jenin and the Beth Shean Valley, the valley containing the Sea of Galilee, and the Hula Valley. It usually does not include Haifa's immediate northern suburbs. By this definition it overlaps with much of the administrative Northern District of Israel and with Southern Lebanon.
- ^ "Galilee". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
- ^ Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1879), s.v. Galilaea.