Samaria is a mountainous region in the northern part of the geographical area to the west of the Jordan River, roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank. The name derives from the ancient city Samaria, the capital of the Kingdom of Israel. During the 1967 Six-Day War, the entire West Bank was captured by Israel. Jordan ceded its claim to the area to the Palestine Liberation...
The Nabataeans, also Nabateans, were an ancient people who inhabited northern Arabia and Southern Levant, their settlements in CE 37 – c. 100, gave the name of Nabatene to the borderland between Arabia and Syria, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. Their loosely-controlled trading network, which centered on strings of oases that they controlled, where agriculture was intensively practiced in...
Masada is a mountain top fortress located in Israel on the western shore of the Dead Sea. The name Masada is derived from the Hebrew word “metzude”, which means “the mountain castle” or the “stronghold”. At Masada’s top are the remains of elaborate buildings built by Herod the Great during his reign in the first century BC. The cliffs on the...
The Levant is a geographical term that refers to a large area in Southwest Asia, south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Arabian Desert in the south, and the Zagros Mountains in the east. It stretches 400 miles north to south from the Taurus Mountains to the Sinai desert, and 70 to 100 miles east to west between the sea and the Arabian desert. The term is...
The Kassites were an ancient Near Eastern people who gained control of Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire after ca. 1531 BC to ca. 1155 BC (short chronology). Their Kassite language is thought to have been related to Hurrian, and not Indo-European or Semitic although the evidence for its genetic affiliation is meager due to the scarcity of extant texts. History The original...
Jericho is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate and has a population of more than 20,000. Situated well below sea level on an east-west route 16 kilometres (10 mi) north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is the lowest permanently inhabited site on earth. It is also believed to be one of the oldest continuously...
There is always something magical about the journey of the Hebrew bloodline forever seeking freedom and a homeland. The Hebrew alphabet is laced with symbols of light and codes that speak of the nature of reality. As with all ancient civilizations, we find a connection to gods in chariots who visited and guide. Today we connect with with UFO’s and alien creators as humanity forever seeks...
Hittites is the conventional English-language term for an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language and established a kingdom centered in Hattusa (Hittite Hattushash) where today is the village of BoazkÐy in north-central Turkey, through most of the second millennium BC. The Hittite kingdom, which at its height controlled central Anatolia, north-western Syria down to Ugarit, and...
The name “Hebron” (or Chevron-pronounced with a hard “ch”) is derived from the Hebrew word “chaver,” or “friend.” In Arabic, Hebron is called “Al Khalil,” which also means “friend.” Both Arabic and Hebrew are shortened forms of the phrase, “Friend of God,” meaning Abraham. Abraham is the eponym of the Abrahamic...
Harram, or Harran was the name of a man, and a place, related to Abraham. Haran, the man, was the son of Terah, brother of Abraham and Nahor, and father of Lot. Haran, the place, was a city in northwestern Mesopotamia (today Iraq) just east of the Euphrates River. It is now in SE Asian Turkey, 24 mi (39 km) SE of Sanlurfa. It is the place Abraham lived after leaving his birthplace, Ur Of The...