Khirbet Minim occupies flat ground near the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, within sight of the lake and of the fertile plain behind it. Excavation has revealed a palatial complex of the early Islamic period: a rectangular walled enclosure reinforced with towers, an entrance gate, a mosque within the walls, courtyards and rooms, and floors laid with mosaic. It belongs to a family of residences built by the new Muslim elite in the countryside, away from the older cities, combining a fortified appearance with an interior arrangement designed for comfort, water and display. The site is quiet, little visited, and set among palms and cultivated land — which makes it an unusually calm subject in a region of crowded destinations. The film reads the plan on the ground and from the air, where enclosure walls and towers are far more legible, and places the complex within the wider story of the Galilee lake shore, where Roman, Jewish, Byzantine Christian and early Islamic remains lie within a few kilometres of one another.
