Biblical Maps

This map of Benjamin’s allotment situates Israel’s smallest tribe on a strategic ridge of the central hill country, a mere bridge between Judah to the south and Ephraim to the north. The cartography follows Joshua’s boundary list: starting west of Jericho, “the border went up through the mountains to Bethel” (Joshua 18:13) and wound southward past Luz and Ataroth, then edged the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem before bending east toward the Jordan. Marked are fortress-towns such as Gibeon, Mizpah, and Gibeah—Saul’s hometown—whose elevated overlooks controlled north–south caravan routes and the approach to the Benjamin Plateau. By plotting wadis that plunge 3,000 feet from Ramah to the Jordan plain and the ascent of Adummim climbing toward the Mount of Olives, the map reveals why Benjamin functioned as both shield and gateway for the united monarchy, why pilgrims ascended from Jericho to worship in Zion, and how prophets could declare that “out of Benjamin shall come a ruler” (Hosea 5:8-10; 1 Samuel 9). Visualizing these contours helps readers appreciate the tribe’s outsized role—as battleground, pilgrimage corridor, and royal cradle—amid Israel’s covenant story.

This Galilee map orients readers to the cradle of Jesus’s public ministry, centering on the sparkling “Sea of Galilee”—really a large freshwater lake ringed by fertile basalt hills—where He called fishermen near Capernaum to “follow Me” (Mark 1:16-20). Radiating outward, the map traces Roman roads that linked lakeside towns such as Bethsaida, Magdala, and the thriving administrative center of Tiberias with inland villages like Cana—scene of His first sign (John 2:1-11)—and Nazareth, where He announced the Jubilee year (Luke 4:16-21). Northward, it sketches the rising Golan heights dotted with Decapolis cities, while to the south it follows the Jordan’s flow toward the Judean wilderness. By plotting these routes, valleys, and ridges, the cartography helps modern readers visualize how short footpaths connected sermon sites, miracle venues, and strategic crossings, underscoring that the “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Matthew 4:15) was both accessible and culturally diverse—an ideal launchpad for the gospel to ripple outward just as the resurrected Christ later commissioned His disciples from “the mountain in Galilee” (Matthew 28:16-20).

This map of the Valley of Elah traces the sinuous wadi that threads east-to-west through the gentle chalk hills of the Judean Shephelah, spotlighting the arena where young David confronted Goliath. It begins near Sochoh and Azekah—towns the Philistines “drew up in battle array” against Israel (1 Samuel 17:1)—then follows the seasonal brook whose smooth stones still invite reflection on the shepherd’s sling. By plotting the ridge road that climbs eastward toward Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the cartography shows why this ravine served as a gateway: whoever held Elah controlled access from the Philistine coastal plain to the Judean highlands. The map also marks contour lines that create a natural amphitheater, helping modern readers envision two armies facing off on opposing slopes while David proclaimed, “The battle is the LORD’s” (1 Samuel 17:47). In illustrating fields, ancient terrace walls, and nearby strongholds such as Khirbet Qeiyafa (likely Shaaraim), the graphic underscores how this seemingly modest valley became a watershed of faith—where the Lord used an overlooked youth to topple a giant and vindicate His covenant people.

This map of ancient Elam unfolds the fertile plains east of the Tigris River and beneath the rugged Zagros Mountains, centering on mighty Susa—“Shushan the citadel” where Daniel saw his ram-and-goat vision (Daniel 8:2) and where Queen Esther later risked her life for Israel’s survival (Esther 4:16). The cartography frames Elam’s river arteries, the Choaspes (modern Karkheh) and the Ulai (modern Karun), which irrigated fields that fed an empire even before Babylon rose. Trade roads fan westward toward Mesopotamia—recalling how Chedorlaomer, “king of Elam,” led a coalition that Abraham pursued as far as Dan (Genesis 14:1-14)—and southeast to the Persian Gulf, a corridor that later funneled Cyrus’s armies. Hill-shade reveals the protective spine of the Zagros, explaining why prophets foretold Elam’s “broken bow” yet also its latter-day restoration (Isaiah 21:2; Jeremiah 49:35-39). By marking border fortresses, royal canals, and caravan paths that stitched Elam to Media and Persia, the map helps readers visualize how this ancient kingdom served as both cradle and crossroads of power—setting the stage for the edicts in Ezra 6:2 and Nehemiah 1:1 that would ultimately send Israel home from exile.

This map of the Divided Kingdom traces the political fault-line that emerged after Solomon’s death, when “Israel rebelled against the house of David” (1 Kings 12:19). The northern kingdom of Israel spreads across the verdant valleys of Jezreel and the hill-country of Ephraim, anchored by Shechem and later Samaria, and dotted with rival sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan where Jeroboam set up golden calves (1 Kings 12:28-30). Southward, the kingdom of Judah hugs the central spine from Jerusalem—where Rehoboam fortified the Temple’s courts—down through Bethlehem toward Hebron and the rugged Negev, even controlling the ascent to En-gedi on the Dead Sea’s western shore. Colored borders on the map highlight shifting frontiers: Aram-Damascus presses from the north, Philistia broaches Judah’s western lowlands, and Moab and Edom flank the Dead Sea to the east and south. Trade arteries like the International Coastal Highway and the King’s Highway are traced in bold, underscoring why prophets such as Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos thundered against alliances with Egypt or Assyria. By plotting terrain gradients—fertile plains above, arid wilderness below—the cartography makes vivid how geography framed faithfulness: Israel’s openness fostered idolatrous exchange, while Judah’s defensible hills prolonged David’s lamp in Jerusalem (2 Kings 8:19). In one glance, the map lets readers grasp how two sibling realms, born of covenant fracture, navigated competing altars, foreign pressures, and prophetic calls until both ultimately fell to exile.

This transcontinental map stitches together three primeval touchpoints of Scripture—Eden, Babylonia, and Cush—to orient readers to the cradle, crossroads, and outer reaches of the ancient Near East. At its center lie the headwaters of Eden, where a single river divides into “Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates” (Genesis 2:10-14); the cartography traces their courses from the misty foothills of the Taurus-Zagros range down to the Persian Gulf, illustrating how geography nurtured humanity’s first garden and later gave rise to irrigation cities. Southeast along the Euphrates, the map highlights Babylonia with its ziggurat-crowned Babylon—“that mighty city” whose tower once knit rebel tongues (Genesis 11:4-9) and whose exile later refined Israel’s hope (Jeremiah 29). Sweeping southwest, color shading follows the Nile south of Elephantine into the land the Hebrews called Cush, reminding viewers that “Cush and Seba” will one day offer tribute to the Lord (Isaiah 43:3; Psalm 68:31). Trade caravans are sketched in ochre—spanning the Arabian Desert and Red Sea ports—revealing how river basins and desert corridors linked these regions long before modern borders. By visualizing lush river valleys against stark wilderness, the map underscores Scripture’s narrative arc: from Eden’s lost intimacy, through Babylonia’s proud ambitions, to Cush’s distant promise, all beckoning the reader to trace redemption’s widening ripple across the ancient world.

This map traces the arc of Abraham’s pilgrimage, beginning in Ur of the Chaldeans—an opulent Sumerian port on the lower Euphrates—where “Terah took Abram … to go into the land of Canaan” (Genesis 11:31). The cartography follows the caravan-friendly bend of the Fertile Crescent northwest to Harran, the bustling trade hub where Abram lingered until “the LORD said, ‘Go forth from your country’” (Genesis 12:1). From there the route swings southwest across the Euphrates at Carchemish, skirts Damascus, and descends through the Beqa Valley into Canaan. Waypoints mark Shechem, where Abram built his first altar beside the oak of Moreh after God promised, “To your descendants I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7); Bethel and Ai, where he pitched his tent and “called upon the name of the LORD” (Genesis 12:8); and the Negev, whose arid pastures foreshadowed both famine and faith. Contour shading contrasts Mesopotamia’s irrigated plains with Canaan’s terraced hills, helping viewers visualize why Abram journeyed the long crescent rather than a desert shortcut. By plotting wells, wadis, and royal highways, the map highlights how each step—from Ur’s ziggurats to Hebron’s oaks—formed a living covenant corridor, inviting readers to walk alongside the patriarch who “went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8), yet trusting the Promise-Giver to turn a migrant’s trail into the backbone of redemption history.

This map of ancient Egypt centers on the life-giving ribbon of the Nile, tracing its fan-shaped Delta—called the “Goshen” where Joseph settled his family during famine (Genesis 47:6)—and then following the river’s emerald path past Memphis and the pyramids of Giza through Middle Egypt’s limestone cliffs to Thebes, the seat of Amun’s temples. Shading contrasts the fertile Kemet (“Black Land”) with the flanking Deshret (“Red Land”) deserts, helping readers grasp why Pharaoh conscripted Hebrews to build the store-cities “Pithom and Rameses” (Exodus 1:11). Caravan routes are drawn in ochre: the “Way of Horus” hugging the Mediterranean coast toward Canaan, and the Wilderness Road that Moses later chose, skirting the Red Sea’s Gulf of Suez toward Mount Sinai—visualizing how the Lord “brought Israel out with a mighty hand” (Exodus 13:17-18). Fortresses such as Sile, mines in the Eastern Desert, and trade ports on the Red Sea highlight Egypt’s reach toward Punt and beyond, while inset contours show the first cataract at Elephantine, marking Nubia’s border and reminding readers of prophetic oracles against Egypt’s pride (Isaiah 19). By plotting flood basins, canal networks, and the Faiyum depression, the map reveals how geography shaped both Pharaoh’s power and Israel’s bondage—and why the prophet could later proclaim, “Out of Egypt I called My son” (Hosea 11:1), turning a land of bricks and bondage into a backdrop for redemption.

This map of Bashan spreads out the broad volcanic table-land east of the Sea of Galilee, its dark basalt soil shaded in deep tones to capture the region the Bible hails as “a land of giant­sized cedars and fat cattle” (Psalm 22:12; Amos 4:1). Contour lines trace the sixty fortified towns of Argob—“with high walls, gates, and bars”—that Moses recorded when Israel struck down “Og king of Bashan” at Edrei and allotted the territory to the half-tribe of Manasseh (Deuteronomy 3:4-5, 12:14; Numbers 21:33-35). Key sites are pinpointed: Ashtaroth, Og’s former capital; Salcah guarding the eastern frontier; and Golan, later a city of refuge. Blue ribbons mark the Yarmuk and Jordan rivers hemming the plateau, while the King’s Highway is traced in ochre as it climbs north toward Damascus, explaining why prophets likened Bashan’s oaks to proud elites toppled by judgment (Zechariah 11:1-2). By juxtaposing fertile plains against the looming cone of Mount Hermon and the ravines that plunge toward the Hauran, the cartography helps modern readers picture the strategic high ground Israel secured east of the Jordan—proof that the covenant people could already taste promise before crossing into Canaan proper.

This first-century Jerusalem map orients readers to the city Jesus called “the city of the Great King”, threading its lanes from the towering Temple Mount—where He overturned tables and taught daily (Matthew 21:12-17)—north to the Antonia Fortress, the pavement where Pilate’s judgment seat stood (John 19:13). Contour shading highlights the Kidron and Hinnom valleys that cradle the ancient City of David and channel pilgrims up the monumental southern steps, while blue ribbons trace the aqueduct that fed the ritual baths by the Pool of Siloam where the man born blind washed (John 9:7). West across the Tyropoeon ravine, the map marks the Upper Room on the Western Hill, birthplace of Pentecost’s rushing wind (Acts 2:1-4), and follows the Via Dolorosa from the Praetorium to the skull-shaped outcrop of Golgotha outside the northern wall (Mark 15:22). In Gethsemane’s olive-dotted slope east of the city, the cartography places the garden where Jesus prayed in anguish (Mark 14:32), just beyond the golden sheen of the temple gates. Roman roads, Herodian palaces, and the bustling market-lined Cardo are plotted in ochre, helping viewers grasp how sacred precincts, civic power, and everyday commerce converged within stone ramparts—making Jerusalem both a spiritual epicenter and a tinderbox that would ignite in A.D. 70, yet still the stage on which the risen Christ commissioned witnesses “to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

This map frames the Black Sea—known to the Greeks as the Pontus Euxinus—as a vast inland crossroads where biblical peoples traded, migrated, and later received the gospel. Along the rugged southern coastline it plots Pontus and Bithynia, provinces Paul planned to enter before “the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them” (Acts 16:7) and where Peter would later address exiles “scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (First Peter 1:1). Moving east, the cartography traces the snow-capped ridges of Colchis and the Caucasus, homeland of Togarmah—grandson of Japheth—whose traders brought horses to the markets of Tyre (Ezekiel 27:14; Genesis 10:3). The northern shore sketches the grasslands of Scythia, echoing Jeremiah’s warning of a foe that would pour down from “the uttermost parts of the earth” (Jeremiah 6:22). Western insets shade Thrace and the Hellespont, reminding viewers that the same sea lanes Paul crossed to Philippi also carried merchants of Javan, Tubal, and Meshech (Ezekiel 27:13) generations earlier. Trade arrows in ochre sweep through the Bosporus and down the Dardanelles, showing how bronze, grain, and slaves flowed between Black Sea ports and the Levant, linking Noah’s distant descendants to Israel’s story. By coupling mountain contours, river arteries such as the Halys and Danube, and the prevailing north winds that sped ancient sails, the map helps readers visualize how the Black Sea region—often a footnote in Scripture—functioned as a bustling hinge between Europe and Asia, setting the stage for both prophetic warnings and apostolic outreach.

This map of the Ararat region lifts the viewer into the volcanic highlands where the ark “came to rest on the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 8:4). Twin snow-clad cones—Greater (5,137 m) and Lesser Ararat—rise boldly from the Araxes plain, their contour lines fanning into fertile lava-soils that still feed vineyards and apricot groves. Blue ribbons trace the headwaters of the Euphrates and Tigris that spill south toward Mesopotamia, while Lake Van’s turquoise basin glints to the west, anchoring the ancient kingdom of Urartu whose name echoes Ararat in later Assyrian annals. The cartography marks royal roads that once funneled trade between Anatolia, Persia, and the Caucasus—routes along which the sons of Sennacherib fled “to the land of Ararat” (2 Kings 19:37; Isaiah 37:38) and which Jeremiah later summoned as allies against Babylon (Jeremiah 51:27). By shading basalt ridges, deep river gorges, and the snow line that lingers into summer, the map helps modern readers picture the rugged sanctuary where post-Flood humanity stepped onto solid ground, and appreciate how this gateway between east and west continued to shape empires and prophetic history long after Noah’s altar smoke curled into the brisk Armenian air.

This Galilee map frames Israel’s northern homeland as a tapestry of hills, lakes, and trade arteries that shaped both Old- and New-Testament history. The cartography shades Upper Galilee’s cedar-clad ridges beneath snow-tipped Mount Hermon, then steps down to Lower Galilee’s olive-dotted basalt bowls where “the people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light” (Matthew 4:16 cf. Isaiah 9:1). At the heart glistens the Sea of Galilee—a harp-shaped freshwater lake—around whose shores Jesus called fishermen at Capernaum, preached beside Magdala, and quelled tempests while crossing to the Decapolis (Mark 1:17; Luke 8:22-26). Ochre lines trace the Via Maris hugging the coast from Egypt to Damascus and the Jezreel–Beth-shan pass funneling caravans eastward, revealing why Galilee, though rural, pulsed with Gentile commerce. Inset contours mark Nazareth’s limestone bluff, Cana’s terraced slopes where water became wine (John 2:1-11), and Arbel’s cliffs overlooking the fertile Gennesaret plain. By juxtaposing lush valleys, Roman roads, and village waypoints, the map helps readers visualize how prophets, patriots, and the Messiah Himself moved within a compact cradle barely forty miles north-to-south—turning Galilee’s mixed farmland into the launchpad from which the good news rippled to “the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

This regional map circles the heartland of Canaan with its ring of rival kingdoms, each poised along natural corridors that shaped Israel’s story. Philistia stretches across the southern Coastal Plain, its five city-states—Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron—commanding the Via Maris trade route and the iron foundries that armed Goliath (1 Samuel 17:4). East of the Dead Sea rises Moab, a limestone plateau where balmy wadis nourish fields of barley; from Nebo’s crest Balaam once looked down on Israel’s camp (Numbers 22:1-41), and Ruth’s loyalty later linked Moab to Davidic kingship (Ruth 1:16-17). North of Moab, the arid tableland of Ammon guards Ramoth-ammon (modern Amman) atop the King’s Highway, recalling how Nahash threatened Jabesh-gilead before Saul’s first victory (1 Samuel 11:1-11). South of the wilderness of Zin sprawls red-rock Edom, its caravan capital Bozrah overseeing copper routes to the Gulf of Aqaba; here the descendants of Esau denied Israel passage (Numbers 20:14-21) and later cheered Jerusalem’s fall (Obadiah 10-14). West of the Jordan, Phoenicia lines the craggy coast with Tyre and Sidon exporting cedar, purple dye, and Jezebel’s Baal worship (1 Kings 16:31). North-eastward rise the basalt highlands of Aram-Damascus, whose chariot armies clashed with Ahab at Ramoth-gilead (1 Kings 22:1-37). By shading river valleys, desert fringes, and caravan tracks, the cartography reveals how each neighbor ringed Israel with both temptation and testing—making the Promised Land not an isolated sanctuary but a strategic crossroads where covenant faithfulness faced constant geopolitical pressure.