Lake
Sea of Galilee
Natural Earth’s outline of the Sea of Galilee measures about 160 km² (61.8 mi²), the 104th largest of the 104 lakes on sizeversus.
- Sea of Galilee
The numbers
- 160km²Area, measured61.8 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 168km²Area, publishedWikidata · 4.7% above our measure
- 44mGreatest depthaverage about 25.6 m
- 4.1km³VolumeWikidata
- 214mBelow sea levelSurface, Wikidata
The area is measured from the outline drawn above, on the WGS84 ellipsoid; the published figure is shown beside it, and a water body is kept only if the two are within 10%.
What the numbers say about the Sea of Galilee
- The Caspian Sea (called a sea or a lake, depending on the definition), the largest of the 104 lakes ranked on sizeversus, is 2,371× the size of the Sea of Galilee; the Sea of Galilee ranks 104th.
- Counted as a country, the Sea of Galilee would be larger than 12 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 201st by area, between the Marshall Islands (165 km²) and Liechtenstein (137 km²).
- It is smaller than every one of the 51 US states and districts.
- It is smaller than every one of the 31 provinces and regions of China.
- Wikidata records a greatest depth of 44 m; with its volume that gives an average depth of about 26 m.
- Wikidata records a volume of 4 km³. Poured over Hong Kong (1,040 km²), that water would stand 4.0 m deep.
- Its surface lies 214 m below sea level (Wikidata).
- On a standard web map (Web Mercator), a place at 33°N is drawn about 1.4× too large in area, so the Sea of Galilee looks bigger there than it is.
- Laid out flat, the Sea of Galilee stretches about 20 km north to south and 12 km east to west.
- Our measured 160 km² is 4.7% below Wikidata’s published figure of 168 km². Published areas of lakes and seas move with the water level and with what is counted, so a few percent is expected.
On the shore
Natural Earth’s outlines of Israel contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of the Sea of Galilee. That is what its geometry says, and it is not a statement about who owns the water or where any border runs in it.
The boundary or political status of Israel is contested. Size Versus draws the Natural Earth de facto outline and takes no position on it.
Names
- Sea of Galileethe name in this page’s titlesource: Wikidata’s English label
- Lake Tiberiasalso calledsource: Wikidata alias
- Lake Kinneretalso calledsource: Wikidata alias
Where the Sea of Galilee ranks
The Sea of Galilee is the 104th largest of the 104 lakes on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.
Share this outline
Sources and method
- Outline
- Natural Earth, 1:10m Lakes + Reservoirs, public domain (Lakes + Reservoirs). Outlines of lakes are drawn at 1:10 million.
- Boundary
- A lake or a sea has no legal boundary of its own. The outline is a cartographic one, and the page says so by showing the measured area beside the published one.
- Area basis
- Measured outline: computed on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outline and shown rounded. Published figure: Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-11. An outline is kept within 10% of the published figure and matched to other places automatically within 5%.
- Depth, volume, height
- As recorded in Wikidata; a volume that cannot be right for the area and depth is left out.
- Shore
- Countries whose Natural Earth outline contains or comes close to the water's outline; computed, not a statement of ownership.
- Drawing
- Each outline is projected with an equal-area projection centred on its own centroid, so areas stay true and two can be laid over each other.
- Data built
- 2026-11-11