1. Lesson One of the Book of Daniel, Introduction to the Book of Daniel

Lesson 14: Geography Study Concerning the Scriptures, Physical Topography and The Coastal Plain

Physical Topography

Land’s small size – 10,330 square miles, size of Lake Erie, the state of Maryland, or the country of Belgium.  Cisjordan 6000 square miles, Transjordan, 4000 square miles.

Land is described by the formula “from Dan to Beersheba” which describes the northern and southern perimeters of Israel’s heartland, something less than 150 miles. 

Judges 20:1, Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpeh.

Also in 1 Sam 3:20, 2 Sam 3:10, 1 Kings 4:25

The east west distances are even smaller ranging in distance from the Mediterranean Sea to the fringes of the Eastern desert between 80 – 105 miles.

Sea of Galilee is only 30 miles from the Sea.

Dead Sea is only 60 air miles from the Sea.

This land was virtually devoid of prominent natural resources, was troubled for the most part by an inhospitable climate, and has some of the earth’s most forbidding landscape.

But this land is placed in an amazing strategic position.

It is the only intercontinental land bridge that connects Africa with Asia and Europe, and that links the Indian Ocean, via the Red Sea, with the Atlantic Ocean, through the corridor of the Mediterranean. 

If you wanted to street preach or hand out Bible tracts it would be the best place on earth in which to do it.

There has been little time in history, if any, when this land has not been involved in world history. 

What happened in Palestine was almost always a reflection of what was occurring or had just occurred in one of Israel’s neighboring countries. 

This is the land where east meets west. 

It was the land where Great Britain and Spain was linked to India in land and sea trade.

During the biblical period the destiny of this tiny but strategic land was largely affected by outside forces.

Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans are prominent in the existence of this land. 

So anyone living in this land was faced with not only geographic difficulities but military hostility. 

It was a land that fostered faith. 

To the early Canaanites this faith was in gods of fertility who would be trusted to bring the rains to the parched earth.

But for the Israelites it was faith in the Creator God Jehovah who was worshipped as the Source of the rains and source of the power to keep those at bay who wished to take Israel from them or take them from Israel.

So God prepared the promised land for His chosen people to the same degree that He prepared His chosen people for the Promised land. 

It was a certain kind of land, positioned at a particular spot, and designed to bring a specific and appropriate response.

God is a craftsman and He has shown us this craftsmanship in this land. 

He has been at work in both history and geography. 

He has shaped the geology of this land in such a way to get a particular result in history. 

The land of Israel is best described in terms of four parallel longitudinal zones. 

From west to east, from the Mediterranean Sea to the desert, these are (1) the coastal plain, (2) the central mountain spine, (3) the Jordan Rift Valley, and (4) the Transjordanian plateau. 

You can travel from Pensacola to Tallahassee and see pretty much the same terrain, relatively flat land with pine trees filling the landscape. 

But this consistency is not the case in the Holy land as God designed the Holy Land with great diversity. 

These parallel longitudinal zones display an exceptional variety in altitude, terrain, and rock formation. 

First we will look at the coastal plain.

The Coastal Plain  

Extends from the Wadi el-Arish some 190 miles north to Rosh HaNiqra, where a finger of the Galilean highlands juts out to meet the Mediterranean and naturally bisects the narrow flatlands on either side.

The characteristics of the coastal plain is that it is low, that it is fertile and that it is open. 

It can be divided into five different plains, the Asher plain (extending from Rosh HaNiqra to the city of Acco), the Acco plain, (the crescent shaped bay reaching between Acco and Mt. Carmel, the Dor plain (stretching from Carmel to the Crocodile marshland), the Sharon plain (ranging from the swamps to the Me Jarkno) and the Philistine plain (extending from the Yarkon to el-Arish.  Each of these pieces of the coastal plain are distintive because they have geographic characteristics which separate each from the others. 

But the entire coastal plain is topographically similar. 

Proceeding in the southerly direction the plain slightly rises and widens, the whole of it remains below 330 feet with much of it lower than 150 feet above sea level.

The Dor plain is constricted in the north to not more than a few hundred yards in width, and in the south to only 4 miles in width, whereas the Sharon plain widens to approximately 10 miles, while the Philistine plain is some 14 miles wide at Ashkelon and 20 miles wide at Gaza.

The shore line along the coastal plain forms a smooth, almost straight line running parallel to the principal mountain ridges of the land.

When mountains parallel instead of intersect a body of water a land is usually poor in deep water and deep bays. 

Also the counterclockwise currents of the Mediterranean carry vast amounts of sand from North Afica, Egypt, or northern Sinai and deposit them along Israel’s already shallow waterfront. 

So Israel has never possessed a good harbor. 

Under Herod the Great a harbor was built at Caesarea under the rule of Caesar Augustus.

Caesarea

[ses-uh-REE-uh] A magnificent port city on the coast of Palestine, about 23 miles s of Mt. Carmel. Built by Herod the Great over a period of twelve years, (23-13 b.c.), it became the Roman metropolis of Judea. During his term as procurator of Judea, Pilate occupied the governor’s residence in Caesarea.

The beautiful marble city, just 65 road miles from Jerusalem, served as Judea’s major seaport and as the Roman administrative center. The Roman governor, customs collector, and provincial finance officer were all headquartered in Caesarea, along with numerous troops. They often called the city Caesarea Maritima (“of the sea”) to distinguish it from the inland Caesarea Philippi to the north, and from other cities in the Empire named in honor of Augustus Caesar.

The most stunning achievement at Caesarea Maritima was the construction of a sheltered harbor. Herod’s engineers built a circular breakwater of huge stones, each measuring 50 by 18 by 9 feet (15.5 by 5.5 by 2.75 meters).

The breakwater, some 200 feet (61 meters) wide on the south, was laid in water as much as 140 feet (43 meters) deep. Not only was this man-made harbor as large as the famous Piraeus harbor in ancient Athens, but its engineers also built channels that permitted them to flush out the harbor, thus keeping it from silting up.