According to Josephus, the Jordan River, with the Sea of Galilee and Lake Hula (now mostly drained), constituted the eastern boundary, but there may have been areas where that boundary was not so precise. The territory of Tyre, reaching below the ancient city of Kedesh (Kedasa, Cydasa), bounded Galilee on the N. (The Jewish War, III, 35-40 [iii, 1]; II, 459 [xviii, 1]; IV, 104, 105 [ii, 3])

The Jewish historian Josephus claimed there were 204 cities and villages in Galilee, the smallest of these numbering over 15,000 inhabitants. If this testimony is not an exaggeration, as many believe it to be, this would mean that Galilee had a population of about three million.​—The Life, 235 (45); The Jewish War, III, 43 (iii, 2).