History Globe
Tour · c. 2100 BC
Empires of the biblical world
Ur Gen 11:31
Around 2100 BC Ur on the lower Euphrates is the capital of the Third Dynasty, which rules Sumer and Akkad. Genesis begins Abram's road here, by the usual identification of Ur of the Chaldees: Terah takes his family "from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan".
Open on the map →Babel Gen 10:10 · ≈ 235 km in a straight line
Under Hammurabi, Babel (Babylon) becomes the capital of a kingdom uniting southern Mesopotamia. Genesis names it first among the cities of Nimrod: "the beginning of his kingdom was Babel".
Open on the map →Thebes Nah 3:8–10 · ≈ 1,370 km in a straight line
Under Thutmose III Thebes, the city of Amon, is the heart of the New Kingdom, whose rule reaches the Euphrates. The Bible knows it as No: Nahum recalls its sack by the Assyrians about 663 BC, "populous No, that was situate among the rivers".
Open on the map →Nineveh 2 Kgs 19:36 · ≈ 1,550 km in a straight line
Sennacherib has made Nineveh the capital of Assyria, the power that took Samaria and now wars against Judah. After his campaign he "departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh."
Open on the map →Babylon Dan 4:30 · ≈ 440 km in a straight line
Nebuchadnezzar has made Babylon the capital of an empire from the Persian Gulf to the border of Egypt, with the exiles of Judah in it. In Daniel he boasts: "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power".
Open on the map →Susa Esth 1:1–3 · ≈ 360 km in a straight line
Susa is a royal seat of the Persian king, who reigns "from India even unto Ethiopia" from his throne in "Shushan the palace". In the third year of his reign Ahasuerus, usually identified with Xerxes I, holds a great feast here.
Open on the map →Alexandria Acts 18:24 · ≈ 1,740 km in a straight line
Alexandria is the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, where the Torah is being translated into Greek (the Septuagint). The Bible names the city only three centuries later, in Acts: Apollos is "born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures".
Open on the map →Antioch Acts 11:26 · ≈ 805 km in a straight line
Once the Seleucid capital, Antioch is now the seat of the Roman governor of Syria and one of the largest cities of the empire. Barnabas and Saul teach here a whole year, "and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch."
Open on the map →Rome Acts 28:16 · ≈ 2,130 km in a straight line
Rome under Nero rules the whole Mediterranean, Judea with it. Paul arrives as a prisoner: "when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard".
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