Geography

The Suez Canal is a narrow waterway connecting the Red Sea (the large body of water in the image) to the Mediterranean Sea, barely visible at the top. The Suez Canal is on the top left side of the Sinai Peninsula. The Canal was originally designed in…

Rahat (Arabic for “desert dwellers”) is a well-known Bedouin city, home to people of mostly semi-nomadic Arab descent. The city is north of Be’er Sheva, in the northern Negev, between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It holds about 60,000 people the…

Modern Be’er Sheva is in southern Israel, where the climate is arid. It is the largest city in the Negev, and home to many global Jewish cultural traditions, represented especially by Sephardic (Spanish), Mizrahi (Egyptian, Iraqi), as well as Jews of…

This image looks east over the Dead Sea towards the Jordanian hills. The Dead Sea is 31 miles long and 9 miles wide. It is situated along the Syrian-African Rift, and is the lowest place on earth, about 1,400 feet below sea level. The Dead Sea is…

This picture shows a portion of the Central Hill rising up from the Seashore plaines, looking east. Over the Hill is the Dead Sea and the Jordan River. The Central Hill is a rectangular topographic feature that runs north and south through central…

Pictured here, looking west towards the Mediterranean, are the modern neighborhoods of Gaza city [population of over 515,000], the largest city in the Palestinian Territories. Gaza is historically significant as a nexus of ancient Mediterranean…

Tel-Aviv has become today the most important economic center of Israel. Jewish immigrants began settling in the area in the 1880’s, but the city was not officially established until the early 1900’s. It is outlined in this image by the high-rise…

The land of Israel (circled in red) though small in size, occupies one of the great crossroads of the ancient world. The global superpowers of the ancient Near East (Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia) coveted this area, either as a buffer between…

How should one define the geographic entity known as the “Middle East”? Scholars have diverging views based on political, demographic, and historical factors. The natural topographic and geological features of the region provide a helpful starting…

The areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea have played a pivotal role in the history of the ancient world. On the northern coast, from west to east, we encounter the regions of Spain, France, Italy, the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, and the Black Sea. On…

This map shows an aerial view of the Mediterranean Sea and surrounding regions. The Black Sea is directly above the eastern part of the Mediterranean and the Caspian Sea is further east. The European continent is north of the Mediterranean, with…

This aerial photograph, looking north, shows the modern city of Tiberias. Tiberias was founded by Herod Antipas in 20 CE and has been continuously occupied since then. It is located on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. At the top of the picture…

This view, looking from the ancient city of Gamla in the Golan Heights southwest toward the Sea of Galilee (visible in the background) illustrates just how quickly the high plateau that makes up the Golan Heights drops down to the Sea of Galilee. The…

This photograph of a waterfall was taken near the modern town of Metulla, at the northernmost reaches of the Huleh Valley (where the Huleh begins to climb up toward Mt. Hermon and the Anti-Lebanon mountain range). It illustrates the lush, watery…

The Yarmuk River, which is barely visible in the bottom right corner of this picture, marks the southern boundary of the Golan Heights, separating it from the region that is the modern country of Jordan. It flows west out of the Golan Heights and…

This photograph shows the Jezreel Valley, which separates the central hills from Lower Galilee. The Via Maris (the road that runs north from Egypt along the coast) cuts through the Jezreel Valley on its way to Damascus. Southern Galilee, known as…

This is a view of the Upper Jordan River, North of the Sea of Galilee. The main source of the Jordan River is located near Banias (Caesarea Philippi), 1,312 feet above sea level. It drops down into the Huleh Valley and then down to the Sea of…

This is a view of the Jordan River, south of the Sea of Galilee. The River flows from north to south on the eastern edge of Israel/Palestine. It is neither wide nor deep, and so provides no defensive advantages. The River flows through the Jordan…

This view, looking east toward the Mt. of Olives, shows the modern Seven Arches Hotel on its summit and the Jewish cemetery that has been built on its western slope. At the base of the Mt. of Olives is the steep Kidron Valley, which cuts dramatically…

This aerial view of Tel Be'er Sheva shows the 8th century BCE outline of the Israelite city and gives an idea of the aridity of the Negev desert. The city was built in the 10th-9th century BCE by first constructing a platform surrounded by a moat.…

This aerial view towards Jerusalem from the east shows just how arid the Central Hill becomes as one passes the watershed line from west to east into the rain shadow on its east side. This is the beginning of the Judaean Desert.

The Dead Sea, which is the lowest place on earth (1,388 feet below sea level), received its name from the fact that its high salinity precludes almost anything from living in it. Water flows into it from various sources, including the Jordan River,…

The city of Jericho sits in the Jordan River Valley, in the Judaean Desert. It has been continuously inhabited since at least 9,000 BCE. Though the Jordan River is nearby (ca. 5 miles away), the city of Jericho gets its water from a prolific local…

The Judaean Desert is located east of Jerusalem (which is in the distance, at the top of the hill) and is formed by the topography of the Central Hill descending toward the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea (the lowest place on earth). It is very dry,…

Northern Galilee was known as 'Upper Galilee' in antiquity because its elevation was higher than Southern Galilee. Today its central portion, called the Huleh Valley (visible in the foreground of this picture), is a rich agricultural valley…

This aerial photograph of Jerusalem, looking north, shows the hilly character of the area. The Old City, including the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, can be seen in the center of the picture, and the skyscrapers of the new city are in the…

The Sinai Desert is bounded by the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba. The region names on this map (Moab, Edom, Midian, Goshen, and Egypt), as well as the names and locations of the cities, are those of the Biblical period (Bronze and Iron Ages).…

Israel is located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, between the Sinai Peninsula, the Arabian Peninsula, and Syria. Other important regions include Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, which make up the northern edge of the Mediterranean, and…

This landscape is typical of many parts of the Central Hill. To the right one can trace the valley that descends from the peak of the central hills and runs west toward the Mediterranean. The steep slopes on the left are man-made terracing (known in…

This photo of the northern Sinai Desert shows the geography, topography, and sparse vegetation that is characteristic of southern Israel/Palestine and the area to its south. Much of its topography is created by sand dunes that are created around…

This view of Tel Beit Shemesh (the archaeological ruins in the foreground), an Israelite town during the Iron Age, gives a feel of the transition from the Coastal plain to the Central Hill. The peaks of the Central Hill, running from north to south…

These hills are part of the northern Central Hill of Palestine. This view shows the valley of Liban, which is in the region that was Samaria in antiquity, and the modern village of Sawiya (on the far hill). The modern road follows the ancient route…

A view of Mt. Zion (in the Old City of Jerusalem) from the Hinnom Valley. The Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu is visible on the upper slope and the Dormition Abbey is visible on the ridge at the upper right corner of the photo. The photograph…

This view of the fields below the Central Hill shows the lush nature of the Coastal Plain between Tel Aviv and Caesarea Maritima. The blue line in the background is the Mediterranean.

This aerial view of the area just south of the harbor at Caesarea Maritima shows the Roman theater (approx. 4,000 seats in its final stage) and the remains of the Promontory Palace (in the lower left corner of the photo), both built in the 1st…

This satellite photograph of Israel/Palestine shows the main geographical markers that define the borders of the country. The two bodies of water are the Sea of Galilee (in the north) and the Dead Sea (in the south). Flowing between them from north…

This aerial view of the ancient harbor of Caesarea Maritima, looking from the Mediterranean sea toward the northeast, gives a feel of what the Coastal Plains are like. They are relatively flat and fertile from the rain runoff. The ports and cities…

The Sinai Peninsula is nowadays part of the modern State of Egypt. The Gulf of Suez, on the left, divides it from the rest of Egypt. The Gulf of Aqaba, on the right, separates it from Saudi Arabia. The southernmost tip of Israel is at the…