Map of the Ancient Fertile Crescent (2500 B.C.)

Sometime around 2500 B.C. a great migration developed upon what is known as the "Fertile Crescent," which was like a great arc of cultivable land that extended from the Persian gulf, up and around Mesopotamia and back down to Israel and Egypt. By 1000 B.C. the known world reached as far west as Europe. The major east-west trade routes were established along the Fertile Crescent. Abraham, the first Hebrew actually followed this route from ancient Ur in Mesopotamia, up and around the Fertile Crescent to Haran and down to the land of Canaan. When the armies of the east collided with the armies of the west it would happen somewhere along the Fertile Crescent. [Bible History Online]