Images & Art

Beersheba

Near the outer gate of the city is a well and a tamarisk tree. Both are later than the time of the patriarchs, but they remind one of the well Abraham dug and the tree he planted (Gen 21). The tamarisk tree is well suited to life in the Negev with its deep root system and its ability to survive on brackish water. It secretes salt on its leaves and ...

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Old City Gates

So named because the road leading from it goes to the port city of Jaffa (Joppa), this gate is the only one on the western side of the Old City. A low part of the city wall was torn down and the Crusader moat of the Citadel filled in 1898 for the visit of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II. This gate was also the famous scene of the English General All...

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Beth Shemesh

A border city between Judah and Dan, Beth Shemesh was given to the Levites. Beth Shemesh was the most important Israelite city in the Sorek Valley as it watched both east-west traffic through the Sorek Valley and north-south traffic along the "Diagonal Route." Recent excavations have shown a thriving city here from the Middle Bronze Age through the...

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Southern Temple Mount

These excavations begun by Benjamin Mazar in 1968 were the largest earth-moving archaeological projects in Israel. Work continued until 1978 but has since resumed in the 1990s under the direction of Ronny Reich. These excavations are the most important for understanding the Temple Mount because of the impossibility of excavating on the mount itself...

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Dead Sea

Known in the Bible as the "Salt Sea" or the "Sea of the Arabah," this inland body of water is appropriately named because its high mineral content allows nothing to live in its waters. Other post-biblical names for the Dead Sea include the "Sea of Sodom," the "Sea of Lot," the "Sea of Asphalt" and the "Stinking Sea." In the Crusader period, it was ...

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Temple Mount

Often visitors wonder why the Temple Mount isn't the highest point in the city when the Bible seems to describe it as such. The answer is that the city today (including the "Old City") has grown and shifted from its original location. The earliest city of Jerusalem is the "City of David," a smaller hill south of, and lower than, the Temple Mount.[B...

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Elath

The southern tip of modern Israel, ancient Elath was outside the prescribed boundaries of the Promised Land for the children of Israel. It was one of the stops on the wilderness travels (Deut 2:8). The relationship of Elath to Ezion Geber is unclear; the Bible says that these two places were near each other by the Red Sea but the exact location of ...

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Dr. K. C. Hanson's Photo Galleries

Photo Gallery of Ancient Mesopotamia, Syria & Israel, Greece & Rome, By Dr. K. C. Hanson "Many of the photographs included here were taken at European museums in June, 1997"...

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Oriental Institute, University of Chicago

The directory contains a TABLE OF CONTENTS (Website Query/Search), ABZU (Index to Ancient Near Eastern Resources on the Internet), THE MUSEUM, MUSEUM EDUCATION, & STORE (SUQ), ELECTRONIC, RESOURCES, RESEARCH & PROJECTS, DEPARTMENTS, and PUBLICATIONS....

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Holyland Model of ancient Jerusalem

From Holyland Turism. A Virtual Tour of Ancient Jerusalem: Holyland Hotel Model. The scale of the Holyland Model is 1:50 (2 cm. = 1m., 1/4 in. = 1 ft.). The model was produced using the same materials that were used in the times of the original construction, such as marble, stone, wood, copper and iron. The model was completed in 1969. The sources ...

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