The Carmelite order began with 12th century religious hermits, who, imitating the prophet Elijah who sometimes took refuge in a cave, organized themselves in caves on the Carmel Mountain in Haifa during the Crusader occupation.
Capernaum
Capernaum is the place where Jesus began to preach after the Temptation in the Wilderness, which is the first recorded event following His baptism. One of the “Evangelical Triangle,” along with Korazim and Bethsaida, the Galilee town of Capernaum is most famous for being the town where Jesus focused his Galilean ministry. Like Bethsaida, it is located on the north end of the Sea of Galilee and is called “Kfar Nahum” in Hebrew. It was a fishing village and was populated consistently from the first century B.C.E. until the 13th century C.E. At the time that Jesus preached there, Capernaum was a Jewish village and a relatively poor one at that, from the looks of the humble building style, using the local black basalt stone. Luke wrote of a number of miracles that took place in Capernaum, being the base for Jesus’ Galilean ministry. It wasn’t a hassle-free experience; those early followers from Capernaum and environs weren’t always attentive or cooperative with Jesus whose frustration with the townspeople was recorded as follows:
"And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you".
A church in the shape of an octagon was built on the spot in the 5th century. The area exposed by the excavation is only a third of the size of the village which was home to about 1,500 people. In 1990 a modern church was built over and around the 5th century church, designed with a glass bottom to allow for viewing the holy site.
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