How far was Babylon from Jerusalem?

Question

Accepted Answer

Babylon lay about 870 km east of Jerusalem in a straight line, about 29 days on foot at 30 km a day; but no road crossed the desert between them, so the exiles and the returning companies went the long way round, north through Syria and then down the Euphrates, and the journey took months. The Bible gives one measured journey. Ezra's company left Babylon on the first day of the first month and reached Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month: "For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him" — four months, with a stop of three days at the river Ahava on the way. On the usual dating this was the seventh year of Artaxerxes I, about 458 BC. The exiles of 597 and of 587 or 586 BC were marched the same way under guard; Jeremiah had told them to build houses and plant gardens in Babylon, for the captivity would last seventy years. Babylon itself stood on the Euphrates beside today's Hillah in Iraq, about 85 km south of Baghdad.