Timeline of the Land of Israel

The Canaanite period 3,300-1,000 BC

This period is also called the Bronze Age as people started using bronze
tools, bronze being stronger than copper. However a much more important
and powerful tool was writing, initial systems of which also came into use at
this time. In fact the advent of writing systems marks the borderline
between prehistory and history.

The oldest scripts that mention the Land of Israel were not found in the
region, but rather in the empires that ruled the Middle East for centuries.
The Canaanites were not one nation but different people who lived in
city-states and paid taxes to Egypt.

Main sites: Jerusalem (City of David), Jaffa, Jericho and Megiddo.

The Gates of Megiddo.

The Israelite period 1000 BC – 586 BC

The Israelites took over the Land of Israel, conquering the Canaanites and
fighting against the Philistines.

King David made Jerusalem his capital and his son, King Solomon, built
the First Temple. After the death of Solomon the kingdom split into two –
Israel (the ten tribes) in the Galilee, and Judah around Jerusalem. In 732
the kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria and the Jews were
expelled.

A hundred and fifty years later, in 586, Babylonia invaded Judah,

destroying the temple and exiling the Jews.

Main sites: Kingdom of Israel – Megiddo, Hazor, Dan National Park; Judah
– Jerusalem, Lachish

The City of David, where it all began.

The Persian period 586 BC -332 BC

In the year 539 the Persians conquered the Babylonian Empire and Cyrus
the Great gave the Jews permission to return to Jerusalem.

Some Jews came back and built the Second Temple in 516 BC. The
Second Temple was modest in comparison to the First Temple.

Main sites: Jerusalem

The Hellenistic period 332 BC -176 BC

The Persian period ended when Alexander the Great conquered the Middle
East in 332 BC.

Until that time, for thousands of years, the Land of Israel had been ruled by
Egypt and by the empires from Mesopotamia – Assyrian, Babylonian,
Persian, etc. The Hellenistic period marks the beginning of the influence of
European power in the Middle East, which was to come to a peak in the
Roman Era.
In 323 BCE Alexander the Great died and the empire was divided between
his successors. The Land of Israel became a battleground between two
successors: the Ptolemaic Kingdom, which was based in Egypt, and the
Seleucid Empire, which ruled Syria. The Land of Israel changed hands a
couple of times until the Seleucids conquered it in the year 200 BC. In 167
BCE King Antiochus forbade Jewish religious practice and the Jews
rebelled.

Main sites: Jerusalem

Hasmonean Dynasty 167 BCE – 63 BCE

The Jewish rebellion ended in a Jewish victory. It’s worth mentioning as it
wouldn’t happen again for another two thousand years. A small Jewish
kingdom existed for a hundred years, until the Romans took over.

Main sites: Jerusalem, Modi’in

The Roman Empire 63 BCE – 324
The Roman takeover was a gradual process.

The Hasmonean regime was taken over by Herod’s family and then by
Roman prefects, or military governors, the best known of whom is Pontius
Pilate. Relations between the prefects and the Jews deteriorated until the
Jews rebelled in 66 CE. In the year 70 the temple was destroyed and in 74
the rebellion ended when the Romans defeated the rebels in Masada.

This period is extremely important and many of the sites you will visit in
Israel are connected to this time – the end of the Second Temple.

Jesus and his disciples formed Christianity, and Judaism changed from a
religion based on the temple to a religion based on prayers and Jewish law.

The Jews carried on living in the Land of Israel until they rebelled again in
132 – the Bar Kokhba revolt. The rebellion ended three years later with the
destruction of Jewish life in Judea. The Romans changed the name of
Judea to Syria Palaestina in order to destroy the tie between the Jews and
Judea. The center of Jewish life moved to the Galilee.

Main sites: almost all major sites in Israel – Jerusalem, Gamla, Qumran,
Masada, Sepphoris, Tiberias, Caesarea and many more.
Caesarea.

The Byzantine period 324-638

Unlike previous changes in rule, which had been brought about by war, the
transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era was smooth; in fact people
didn’t know they were living in the Byzantine era, as it is a new name that
only came about in the 18th century.

People saw themselves as Roman. The name was given to mark the
beginning of the conversion of Romans to Christianity. The first churches
were built in this era.

Main sites: Jerusalem, Caesarea

The Arab Caliphate period 638-1099

Islam spread out from the Arabian Peninsula. The Land of Israel was
conquered in 638 and ruled by Muslim empires based in Egypt, Syria and
Mesopotamia.
It was during this era that the first mosques were built, the best known
being the Al Aqsa Mosque. The Dome of the Rock, which is not actually a
mosque, was built where the Jewish temple stood.

Main sites: Jerusalem and Ramla.

Dome of the Rock.

The Crusades 1099-1291

For various reasons the European powers decided to conquer Jerusalem
and went on a series of crusades.

This era was marked by many battles between the Crusaders and the
Muslims, the best known of which is the battle of Hattin (not far from the
Sea of Galilee), which the Muslims won. But the Crusaders came back and
stayed for another hundred years.
Main sites: Jerusalem, Acre, Hattin.
Acre (Akko)

The Mamluk period 1291-1517

The Mamluk period is probably the one people generally know the least about.

The Mamluks were non-Muslim slave-soldiers who were forced to convert to Islam.
Over the years they came to understand the power they had and therefore decided
to murder their masters and start their own Muslim dynasty based in Egypt.

They were great fighters and defeated the Crusaders and even the Mongols that
made it all the way to the Jezreel Valley in the Galilee. Their greatest fear was that
the Crusaders would come back so they destroyed all the port cities.

Main sites: Jerusalem, Nimrod Fortress in the Golan Heights

The Ottoman Empire 1517-1917

The Ottoman Empire expanded very quickly only to deteriorate slowly for the next
three hundred years.

Local rulers rose and fell and the central regime was weak and corrupt. Napoleon’s
war campaign in the Middle East brought the Land of Israel to people’s attention, and
the European powers took a new interest in obtaining a foothold in the area, but it
wasn’t until the end of WWI that the Ottoman empire finally collapsed.

Main sites: Jerusalem (the Wall of the Old City), Akko.

The walls of the Old City of Jerusalem

British Mandate 1917-1948

The League of Nations (the pre-U.N. organization) gave the British and French a
mandate to help the nations that lived under the Ottoman Empire become
independent. But in reality they found themselves in the middle of fighting between
Jews and Arabs.
Main sites: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.
Haifa port. Built by the British.

State of Israel 1948

After WWII the British had enough problems to contend with at home and didn’t want
to be involved in fighting in the Middle East.

They brought the issue back to the U.N., which recommended a partition of
Mandatory Palestine. On 14th of May 1948, 2,000 years after the Romans liquidated
the Jewish state, David Ben Gurion declared the establishment of the state of Israel.

Main sites: Israel

Mount Herzel.