Kursi (Κυρσοί) is located near the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee on the bank of a wadi, Nahal Samakh, descending from the Golan Heights. It is an archaeological site containing the ruins of a Byzantine monastery and identified by tradition as the site where Jesus cast out demons from two men which then went on to possess local pigs which cast themselves into the sea (Mark 5:1-20, Matthew 8:28–34, Luke 8:26-39). The events take place in the land of either the Gerasenes, Gadarenes or Gergesenes (Mark 5:1, Matthew 8:28, Luke 8:26). Part of the archaeological site is now an Israeli national park. Kursi takes its name from the Talmudic site. A marble slab with Aramaic text discovered in December 2015 seems to indicate that the settlement had, as of ca. 500 AD, a Jewish or Judeo-Christian population.
