Browse Items (337 total)

The Rosetta Stone contains an inscription written in three scripts (Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek) and allowed the decipherment of hieroglyphs and Demotic. It was found by Napoleon's army in 1799 in the city of Rashid (Rosetta) in the Nile…

This photograph shows a simple one-room 'round house' in the Negev Desert that was built around 2,000 BCE. The pillar in the middle of the room supported the roof. It seems that they were used only for sleeping quarters: all cooking ovens and other…

These copper objects are part of one of the most famous hoards of objects ever found in the region. The hoard consisted of over 400 items that were found hidden in a cave high in a cliff overlooking Nahal Mishmar, a seasonal river bed near En Gedi,…

This 12 inch-high figurine depicts a female figure seated on a stool and holding a milk churn on her head. The milk churn is a miniature replica of ceramic churns known from this period. It was found together with several other apparently ritual…

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 shows a reconstruction of how the roof was probably built on a Round House. Wooden beams from the trunk of a nearby tamarisk tree were laid like spokes radiating from the central pillar to the outer wall, and broad, flat stones were…

This photograph shows some of the common pottery from the Middle Bronze I period (2,000-1,900 BCE). The basin-shaped vessel in the foreground center with the four pinched corners is an ancient lamp. Oil would be put inside and wicks would run through…

This photograph shows some common every-day pottery from the Early Bronze Age (3,300-2,000 BCE). Because archaeologists find more pottery sherds than anything else in an excavation, it is the main source of information for dating the architecture of…

A tel (sometimes spelled 'tell'), shown in this picture, is a mound holding ancient ruins. Most towns and cities in ancient times were built on the top of a hill because this location offered a defensive advantage. When all or part of a city was…

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 photograph of one of the many the Early Bronze Age towers at Arad reveals defenses typical of the period. The towers, 10-12 feet in diameter and found at 65-80 foot intervals, projected out from the wall, thus exposing any attacker attempting to…

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…

The ancient site of Yiftael, in Lower Galilee, has one of the best preserved Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age I (3150-2850) villages in Galilee. This photograph shows the foundations of the round or elliptical houses that comprised a room that was…

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…