Looking at the Promised Land from the place Moses stood

It took also Moses and his people 40 years wandering to find this place. It most be the longest wandering in the history. For me it just took some few hours to get there by car from Amman, the capital in Jordan.

In the morning 7 July this year (2005) I visited Madaba first, which is world-famous for its Byzantine mosaics. In a church I saw the masterpiece of the map of Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

Photo. The masterpiece of map of Jerusalem and the Holy Land shown in a church in Madaba. © Travel Explorations.

My next stop was at Mount Nebo, where I overlooked the Promised Land. It was just like Moses once did after travelling through the desert for forty years. I can imagine it was a kind of apocalypse for him and his people when they watched this land. It was such a wonderful sight. I could just stood there for hours admire looking at it.

Nearby I visited the remains of a church dating back to the sixth century. From Mount Nebo it was also possible to hike all the way down to the Dead Sea, the lowest spot on earth. The Dead Sea is believed to have healing powers because of the super salty water (read more about this in another article on our website).

Canaan is an ancient term for a region roughly corresponding to present-day Israel, the West Bank, western Jordan, southern and coastal Syria and Lebanon continuing up until the border of modern Turkey.

According to the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, there were five places where "new" evidence on Canaanite culture had been obtained, including Tell-el-Hasy, eventually identified with the Lachish of the Old Testament, where excavations were made in 1890 to 1892 by Flinders Petrie and Bliss; and Gezer, identified with the Gezer of 1 Kings X.16, where R.A.S. Macalister began excavating in 1902. The Canaanite town of Ugarit was rediscovered in 1928, and much of our modern knowledge about the Canaanites stems from excavation in this area.

The history of the Jewish people begins with Abraham, and the story of Abraham begins when G-d tells him to leave his homeland, promising Abraham and his descendants a new home in the land of Canaan. (Gen. 12). This is the land now known as Israel, named after Abraham's grandson, whose descendants are the Jewish people. The land is often referred to as the Promised Land because of G-d's repeated promise (Gen. 12:7, 13:15, 15:18, 17:8) to give the land to the descendants of Abraham.

Photo. The Promised Land seen from West Jordan - with Isreal in the background. © Travel Explorations.

The land is described repeatedly in the Torah as a good land and "a land flowing with milk and honey" (e.g., Ex. 3:8). This description may not seem to fit well with the desert images we see on the nightly news, but let's keep in mind that the land was repeatedly abused by conquerors who were determined to make the land uninhabitable for the Jews. In the few decades since the Jewish people regained control of the land, we have seen a tremendous improvement in its agriculture. Israeli agriculture today has a very high yield.

According to the Biblical account in Exodus 12:37, it appears that 600,000 adult Hebrew men left Egypt and travelled with Moses first to Mount Sinai; some 40 years later their descendants invaded the land of Canaan. According to many Jewish sources, the total number of Israelites (including women and children) numbered some three million. Believers have generally accepted this story as historically accurate; belief in the details of this story did not constitute a religious tenet as such; rather, readers believed this as an historical fact that the Bible faithfully recorded.

Photo. Mosaic on the floor in a church on the edge of the cliff where Moses stood observing the Promised Land. © Travel Explorations.

Recent archaeological research has cast doubt on this story. Archaeologists have not found evidence that the Sinai ever hosted millions of people, nor of a massive population increase in Canaan during this time period. At this time the land had a population of between 50,000 and 100,000.

Archaeologists and secular historians have worked in the Middle East for many years to determine approximately how many people lived in a given area at a given time. They do this by analyzing the evidence: buildings, trash, human waste product, skeletons, traces of ancient farms and fields, clothing, documents, and, of course, historical records.

On a clear blue day I was lucky to get a wonderful sight of the Promised Land. It`s so much history behind it.

Stein Morten Lund, 25 August 2005

Additional information
For more information about the story of Moses, you can read about it in the Bible.

The Bible is a collection of books. It`s divived into two testaments: the old and the new testament. The two main versions (editions) of the Bible have been the most widely distributed of books. It has also been translated more times, and into more languages, than any other book. The complete Bible, or portions of it, have been translated into more than 2,100 languages. It is said that 5 billion copies of the Bible have been sold since 1815.

Explore the Nabataen Empire on Travel Explorations. Read our articles about the amazing wonders as Petra and Bedouin people in Jordan.

We present hereby a tour operators from Jordan where travellers can book their adventure tours.

The tour operator Jordan Beauty Tours made my tour become a great adventure for life. Especially thanks to these persons: Joseph, Ibrahim, Abdullah and Ali.

Contact information for our recommended tour operator in Jordan (who also arrange tours to other countries in the Middle East):
Jordan Beauty Tours
Tel. +962 795581644
Fax. +962 3 2154 999
E-mail: info@jordanbeauty.com
Website: www.jordanbeauty.com
Tourist St. Near Movenpick Hotel
P.O.Box : 8
Petra 71810
JORDAN