Land of Israel

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 warring empires (e.g., Egypt and Assyria) or for its access to important trade routes running through an area that resembles a bottleneck in northern Israel.