Description: Palestine lay at almost the precise center of the then known world. If one were to draw a circle of 1,600 miles diameter, with Jerusalem as the focus, all the great cities of ancient times would be included, - Rome, Athens, Ephesus, Nineveh, Babylon, Memphis, Thebes, and Alexandria. It was a land shut in by mountains, which in turn shut out many enemies. Nevertheless it was the great highway between Egypt and Babylon, because, lying between both, the caravan routes passed through it with the commerce of these two mighty countries.— Smith Place Names: Southwest Asia, Great Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Egypt, River Euphrates, River Tigris, Babylonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Memphis, Nile River, Mesopotania, Gilead, ISO Topic Categories: inlandWaters,
location Keywords: Period of the Patriarchs, physical, physical features, inlandWaters,
location, Unknown, Old Testament Times Source: William Walter Smith, The Students' Illustrated Historical Geography of the Holy Land (Philadelphia, PA: The Sunday School Times Company, 1911) 65 Map Credit: Courtesy the private collection of Roy Winkelman |
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