Geography

Question 1

How did the name for Palestine originate?

Answer 1

Philistines settled on the coast 1200 BC after trying to take Egypt and failing. They name self Paleshet. One of their cities Gaza then turns into a state where the philistine ethnicity marries into the melting pot and is not longer distinct to that one coastal area.

Question 2

What are other names for Palestine?

Answer 2

The Holy Land, Hatti land (from Hittite rule), Judah & Israel, the Levant, eastern seaboard.

Question 3

What water bodies are in the near/far east?

Answer 3

Mediterranean sea (W), dead sea/sea of salt, Jordan river, sea of galilee, black sea (N), red sea (S), Caspian Sea (NE), Persian Gulf (SE)

Question 4

Where is Galilee? What famous cities are in it?

Answer 4

North Palestine, including Megiddo, Nazareth, Capernaum, and Bethsaida. From the verb ‘Galal’ meaning ‘roll around in a circle’ applied because there is a deep circular impression around the lake of galilee.

Question 5

What are the names of the territories top to bottom on the East side of the Jordan river?

Answer 5

Aram, Gilead (Israel), Ammon, Moab, and Edom

Question 6

What is the origin and geography of Edom?

Answer 6

Edomites are the descendants of Esau. The land is full of red sandstone and crags.

Question 7

Which city’s name is the origin of the word “Armageddon”?

Answer 7

Megiddo

Question 8

What is the origin of the name of Shechem?

Answer 8

“shoulder” because it is the city between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim

Question 9

How were Judah and Israel split?

Answer 9

Judah is the land southwest of the top of the dead sea until the gulf of aqaba; while Israel encompasses samaria, galilee, and gilead.

Question 10

What are the names of the territories top to bottom on the West side of the Jordan river?

Answer 10

Galilee, samaria, Judah, Negev.

Question 11

What is the geography of Beersheba?

Answer 11

Lowest city on the ridge at a well where a spring stream flows from.

Question 12

What are alluvials?

Answer 12

Small streams which carry soil with them and at the end spread dirt, silt, and clay out. This creates shallow areas where the alluvial meets the Jordan river called fords.

Question 13

What is Jericho’s geography?

Answer 13

Jericho guard a large ford just North of the dead sea. It is one of the only large cities on a plain, and is a city on a hill in the middle of a valley on the plain.

Question 14

What is a Tel? What is the tallest?

Answer 14

It is the building up of a new city on the ruins of an old one. Because good locations both on a hill and near water are rare, it is better to rebuild than move. Beit She’an is the tallest Tel.

Question 15

What is a Terrace?

Answer 15

A way to maximize farmland on the side of a hill/mountain out of previously unfarmable land

Question 16

What is the Hebrew word for city?

Answer 16

Ir

Question 17

What are the two heartland nations?

Answer 17

Babylonia and Assyria

Question 18

Where are the Zargos mountains?

Answer 18

Border between the high plateau of Persia and the Medes to the East, and the lower plains of Mesopotamia on the West.

Question 19

What is Nineveh the capitol of?

Answer 19

Assyria.

Question 20

What is Nineveh the capitol of?

Answer 20

Assyria.

Question 21

What is Damascus the capitol of? What route is it located on?

Answer 21

Aram. Damascus is one of the most ancient cities, and on the path through the fertile crescent and down to Babylon.

Question 22

What is the significance of Riblah?

Answer 22

Where Zedekiah’s sons were executed, and where Nebuchadnezzar set up control. North of Damascus.

Question 23

Where was Abraham from?

Answer 23

Ur, which is most likely on the lower end of the Euphrates River.

Question 24

How many miles is Palestine top to bottom?

Answer 24

160miles, the same distance as Pittsburgh to Eerie.

Question 25

How do you locate Jerusalem?

Answer 25

Start at top of dead sea and move west until you hit the Judean ridge.

Question 26

What is the significance of Hebron?

Answer 26

The most defensible city at the height of the Judean ridge. Between Jerusalem and Beersheba.

Question 27

What are westerlies? How do they affect Palestine?

Answer 27

Winds that come from the W–>E, a global phenomenon caused by the Earths spin. In Palestine they take heavy moisture from the Mediterranean and drop rain on the Ridge.

Question 28

What is farmed/grown on the East and West of the Judean Ridge?

Answer 28

The West gets rain and is good for growing barley, wheat, grain, grapes, figs, and olives. The East side is dry and good pasture for sheep and goats.

Question 29

What is the lowest point on Earth?

Answer 29

The dead sea, 423 meters below sea level.

Question 30

What is the lowest point on Earth?

Answer 30

The dead sea, 423 meters below sea level.

Question 31

Where is there a high pressure dome?

Answer 31

Because winds miss the east side of the Judean ridge and there is no rain, a high pressure dome is created in August between the ridge and the dead sea where hot and dry.