Entity index
Places of the Bible
Each place has its own page: the region it belongs to, where it stands today, what excavation has actually turned up, and every King James verse that names it — linked back into the reader and the interactive maps.
- AntiochToday: Antakya, TurkeyAntioch is where Greeks first hear the gospel in numbers, where believers are first called Christians, and the base from which Paul and Barnabas are sent out on every missionary journey.
- AthensToday: Athens, GreecePaul waits in Athens 'provoked' by its idols and ends up before the council on the Areopagus, quoting Greek poets back to philosophers and preaching the resurrection to a divided hearing.
- BabylonToday: near Hillah, IraqBabylon is the tower of Genesis, the empire that burns Jerusalem and deports Judah, and finally the New Testament's symbol for every proud city that sets itself against God.
- BeershebaToday: Tel Sheva / Be'er Sheva, IsraelBeersheba is where Abraham and Isaac dig wells and swear treaties, and the southern marker of the land. Elijah leaves his servant here before walking on into the wilderness.
- BethanyToday: al-Eizariya, West BankBethany is the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, where Jesus stays during his last week, where Lazarus is raised, and where a woman anoints him for burial.
- BethelToday: Beitin, West BankBethel — 'house of God' — is where Jacob dreams of a stairway and sets up a stone pillar. After the kingdom splits, Jeroboam installs one of his golden calves there, and Amos later denounces it as a royal sanctuary.
- BethlehemToday: Bethlehem, West BankBethlehem is where Rachel is buried, where Ruth gleans and marries Boaz, and where David is anointed among the sheep. Micah names it as the origin of a ruler in Israel, and Matthew and Luke place the birth of Jesus there.
- CaesareaToday: Caesarea Maritima, IsraelHerod's harbour city is the Roman administrative capital of Judea: Cornelius' household is baptised here, Herod Agrippa dies here, and Paul is held here for two years before sailing for Rome.
- CapernaumToday: Kfar Nahum, IsraelCapernaum becomes Jesus' base in Galilee: the calling of fishermen and a tax collector, the healing of the centurion's servant and Peter's mother-in-law, and the bread of life discourse in its synagogue.
- CorinthToday: Korinthos, GreeceA wealthy port city straddling two harbours, Corinth hosts Paul for eighteen months and receives his most practical letters — on divisions, lawsuits, meat, worship, spiritual gifts and resurrection.
- DamascusToday: Damascus, SyriaDamascus is Aram's capital and a long-standing rival to Israel, the city Naaman comes from, and the destination Saul never reaches as a persecutor — stopped on its road and led in blind.
- DanToday: Tel Dan, IsraelDan marks the north in the phrase 'from Dan to Beersheba'. Jeroboam sets up his second golden calf here, at a sanctuary beside one of the Jordan's sources.
- Dead SeaToday: Dead SeaThe Salt Sea marks Judah's eastern border and the desolation left after Sodom. Ezekiel's closing vision has a river from the temple running down to it and making its waters fresh.
- Dead SeaToday: Dead SeaThe Salt Sea marks Judah's eastern border and the desolation left after Sodom. Ezekiel's closing vision has a river from the temple running down to it and making its waters fresh.
- EgyptToday: EgyptEgypt is refuge and prison by turns: grain in famine for Jacob's family, four centuries of slavery, the exodus, and later the country Joseph and Mary flee to with the child. Prophets keep warning Judah not to lean on it.
- EphesusToday: near Selçuk, TurkeyPaul spends over two years in Ephesus, until the silversmiths riot in the theatre over lost trade in shrines of Artemis. The city receives one of Paul's letters and the first of Revelation's seven.
- GazaToday: GazaGaza is one of the five Philistine cities, where Samson carries off the gates and dies bringing down the temple of Dagon. The road down from Jerusalem toward Gaza is where Philip meets the Ethiopian official.
- GethsemaneThe olive grove where Jesus prays before his arrest, asking that the cup pass while accepting that it will not. Judas arrives with a crowd from the chief priests.
- GilgalGilgal is Israel's first camp in the land, where twelve stones from the riverbed are set up and the manna stops. It becomes Saul's coronation site and later a target of prophetic criticism.
- GolgothaGolgotha, 'the place of a skull', is where Jesus is crucified between two others. Its exact location is debated between the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Garden Tomb.
- GolgothaGolgotha, 'the place of a skull', is where Jesus is crucified between two others. Its exact location is debated between the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Garden Tomb.
- GoshenGoshen is the pastureland Pharaoh grants Jacob's family, where Israel multiplies for four centuries and where the plagues pass over them.
- HaranToday: Harran, TurkeyHaran is where Terah's family settles and Abraham receives his call to leave. Jacob returns there to work for Laban and marry Leah and Rachel.
- HebronToday: Hebron, West BankHebron is where Abraham settles by the oaks of Mamre and buys the cave of Machpelah as a burial place. Centuries later it is David's first capital, where he reigns over Judah for seven years before taking Jerusalem.
- JerichoToday: Tell es-Sultan / Jericho, West BankJericho is the first city Israel faces west of the Jordan, taken after seven days of circling. It reappears as the setting of the good Samaritan's road, Zacchaeus in his sycamore, and blind Bartimaeus by the roadside.
- JerusalemToday: JerusalemJerusalem enters the story as a Jebusite stronghold David captures and makes his capital, and it never leaves it. Temple, monarchy, siege, exile, return, and the death and resurrection of Jesus all happen here, and Revelation closes with a new Jerusalem coming down.
- JerusalemToday: JerusalemJerusalem enters the story as a Jebusite stronghold David captures and makes his capital, and it never leaves it. Temple, monarchy, siege, exile, return, and the death and resurrection of Jesus all happen here, and Revelation closes with a new Jerusalem coming down.
- JoppaToday: Jaffa, Tel AvivJoppa is the port Jonah sails from to avoid Nineveh, and the town where Peter raises Tabitha and then sees the sheet let down from heaven that sends him to a Gentile house.
- JordanToday: Jordan RiverThe Jordan is the boundary Israel crosses to enter the land, the river where Naaman washes and is healed, and where John baptises and Jesus is baptised.
- LachishToday: Tel Lachish, IsraelLachish is Judah's second city, besieged by Sennacherib and later by Nebuchadnezzar. Its fall is the warning Jerusalem is given twice.
- MegiddoToday: Tel Megiddo, IsraelMegiddo guards the pass on the main highway between Egypt and Mesopotamia, and armies fought over it for millennia. Josiah dies here, and its name lies behind Revelation's Armageddon.
- Mount CarmelToday: Mount Carmel, IsraelCarmel is where Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal and calls down fire on a soaked altar, then climbs to the summit to wait for a cloud the size of a man's hand.
- Mount of OlivesToday: Mount of Olives, JerusalemThe ridge across the Kidron from the temple is where David flees weeping from Absalom, where Jesus teaches about the end, prays in Gethsemane, and from where Acts places the ascension.
- Mount SinaiSinai is where Moses meets God at the burning bush and where Israel receives the law amid smoke and trumpet blast. Elijah later travels back to the same mountain to hear the low whisper.
- Mount SinaiSinai is where Moses meets God at the burning bush and where Israel receives the law amid smoke and trumpet blast. Elijah later travels back to the same mountain to hear the low whisper.
- NazarethToday: Nazareth, IsraelNazareth is an obscure Galilean village — 'can anything good come out of Nazareth?' — where Jesus grows up and first reads Isaiah aloud in the synagogue, to a reception that turns violent.
- NinevehToday: Mosul, IraqNineveh is the great Assyrian capital Jonah is sent to and Nahum announces the fall of. Its repentance in Jonah is the book's scandal; its destruction in 612 BC is the prophets' vindication.
- PatmosToday: Patmos, GreeceJohn receives the visions of Revelation on Patmos, where he says he was 'on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus' — most read that as exile.
- PhilippiToday: near Kavala, GreeceA Roman colony where Paul's first European converts include Lydia and a jailer converted after an earthquake. The letter he later writes from prison to this church is his warmest.
- Red SeaThe sea Israel crosses on dry ground while the pursuing chariots are lost behind them. It becomes the standard reference point for God's rescue in psalms and prophets alike.
- RomeToday: Rome, ItalyRome is the horizon of Acts: Paul writes his longest letter to the church there before he has ever visited, and finally arrives as a prisoner, teaching for two years under guard.
- SamariaToday: Sebastia, West BankSamaria is the capital Omri builds and Ahab adorns, and the target of prophetic anger over ivory houses and injustice. After the Assyrian conquest, the mixed population of the region becomes the Samaritans of the Gospels.
- Sea of GalileeToday: Lake KinneretA freshwater lake ringed by fishing towns, the Sea of Galilee is the setting for the calling of the first disciples, the calming of the storm, walking on water, and the breakfast on the shore after the resurrection.
- Sea of GalileeToday: Lake KinneretA freshwater lake ringed by fishing towns, the Sea of Galilee is the setting for the calling of the first disciples, the calming of the storm, walking on water, and the breakfast on the shore after the resurrection.
- ShechemToday: Tell Balata, near NablusShechem is Abraham's first stop in Canaan and the place where Joshua gathers Israel to renew the covenant. The northern tribes reject Rehoboam here, and Jacob's well nearby is where Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman.
- ShilohToday: Khirbet Seilun, West BankShiloh houses the tabernacle through the period of the judges, and is where Hannah prays and Samuel grows up. Its destruction becomes Jeremiah's warning to anyone who trusts the temple as a lucky charm.
- SodomSodom is the city Lot settles in and Abraham bargains for, destroyed with Gomorrah in fire and sulphur. Later prophets name its sin as arrogance and neglect of the poor as much as anything else.
- ThessalonicaToday: Thessaloniki, GreecePaul preaches three sabbaths in the synagogue at Thessalonica before a mob drives him out. Two of his earliest letters answer this young church's questions about the return of Christ.
- TyreToday: Sour, LebanonTyre supplies Solomon with cedar and craftsmen, and grows rich enough to draw long oracles from Isaiah and Ezekiel. Jesus travels to its region and meets a Syrophoenician woman there.
- UrToday: Tell el-Muqayyar, IraqUr of the Chaldeans is where Abraham's family begins, before Terah leads them north to Haran. Joshua's farewell speech reminds Israel that their ancestors served other gods beyond the river.
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