Many readers of the Bible are aware that Ararat is the location where Noah’s ark came to rest (Genesis 8:4), yet few would recognize it on a map, and fewer still would be able to recount much else about this noteworthy place. The land of Ararat (also called Urartu) was indeed mountainous, so it is […]
Category Archives: Assyrian Period
Northern Levant
With its pivotal position at the nexus of some of the greatest civilizations of ancient times, the broad plains of the northern Levant and its many important routes served as the crossroads of the ancient Near East. The region itself was home to some of the oldest civilizations in history, and it has been ruled […]
Western Europe and Africa
To the ancient Israelites, the distant regions of western Europe and Africa would have been regarded as the edge of the world, for beyond the Strait of Gibraltar and the coasts of Spain lay the vast, impassable Atlantic Ocean. Some scholars speculate that Tarshish, mentioned throughout the Old Testament as a far off land (Genesis […]
Lycia and Pamphylia
Throughout their long history, the mountainous region of Lycia and the fertile plain of Pamphylia repeatedly changed hands among the dominant powers of Anatolia. During the Trojan War, Lycia was allied with the Trojans, and Pamphylia belonged to the Hittite Empire. Later, various Greek powers held sway over Lycia and Pamphylia until Cyrus the Great […]
Oases of the Arabian Desert
One of the most overlooked locations of biblical history is the desert region encompassing the oases of Dumah, Tema, Dedan, and Yathrib. While Dumah, Tema, and Dedan are mentioned by name only a few times in the Old Testament and Yathrib is not mentioned at all, the history of these cities often overlaps with biblical […]