Myra, hometown of St. Nicholas, is on scholar Mark Wilson’s top-ten list of Biblical sites to visit in Turkey. Read more…
Biblical Sites & Places
Biblical sites and places are archaeological sites or geographical places and regions related to the Bible.
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Site-Seeing: The Hometown of Santa Claus
• 12/05/2018
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Understanding the Jewish Menorah
• 12/03/2018
The Jewish menorah—especially the Temple menorah, a seven-branched candelabra that stood in the Temple—is the most enduring and iconic Jewish symbol. But what did the Temple menorah actually look like? Read more…
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Is the Earliest Image of the Virgin Mary in the Dura-Europos Church?
• 11/30/2018
A third-century portrait of a woman drawing water from a well was uncovered in the Dura-Europos church in Syria. While this was originally interpreted as the Biblical scene of the Read more…
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What Were the Crusades and How Did They Impact Jerusalem?
• 11/11/2018
Some of the most famous churches in Jerusalem were built during the Christian Crusades by Crusaders wishing to memorialize sites they believed to have great Christian significance. Read more…
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Learn More About the Temple Mount Now
• 11/07/2018
Considered sacred ground even before Biblical times and bitterly contested in our own day, the Temple Mount is one of the most fascinating and important places on earth. Read more…
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The Nicea Church: Where Did the Council of Nicea Meet?
• 11/02/2018
Off the shores of Nicea, archaeologists have uncovered a basilica, which stands over what appears to be an earlier church. Could this church be where the famous Council of Nicea Read more…
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The Church of Laodicea in the Bible and Archaeology
• 10/21/2018
Laodicea was a wealthy city in western Turkey that flourished for centuries. Why does the author of the Book of Revelation call the church of Laodicea “lukewarm”—neither hot nor cold? Read more…
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Where Is Biblical Bethsaida?
• 10/20/2018
The ancient village of Bethsaida frequently mentioned in the Gospels is believed to be located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, but where precisely the abandoned city Read more…
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Baptismal Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” Added to UNESCO World Heritage List
• 09/29/2018
In 2015, UNESCO added the archaeological complex at Al-Maghtas, Jordan—called the Biblical “Bethany beyond the Jordan”—to its World Heritage List. Another tradition places the baptismal site on the west bank Read more…
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Wilderness Wanderings: Where is Kadesh?
• 09/26/2018
According to the Bible, the Israelites stayed at a place called Kadesh-Barnea following their Exodus from Egypt and wanderings through the desert. Where is Kadesh-Barnea? Read more…
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Tel Maresha Caves Reveal Hellenistic Treasures
• 09/18/2018
Recent excavations shed further light on how ancient peoples used the subterranean cave complexes at Tel Maresha. Read more…
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Tel Maresha Caves Reveal Lost World of the Idumeans
• 09/16/2018
Tel Maresha, located in the Judean foothills southwest of Jerusalem, exists on two levels—one a typical Hellenistic town; the other a subterranean metropolis of cave complexes. Read more…
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Site-Seeing: Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem
• 09/14/2018
Every visitor to Jerusalem has seen David’s Tower. Scholar Jonathan Klawans recommends venturing inside the magnificent complex. Read more…
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Biblical Riot at Ephesus: The Archaeological Context
• 09/09/2018
How accurate is Luke’s account of the riot at Ephesus described in Acts 19:23–41? Excavations at the site bring this Biblical event to reality in a new way—from inscriptions and Read more…
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Pilgrims’ Progress to Byzantine Jerusalem
• 09/05/2018
Jerusalem has been revered as a holy city for millennia—with pilgrims a staple feature in its bustling streets. Egeria’s Travels and the journals of the Bordeaux Pilgrim and the Piacenza Read more…
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Carchemish in the Bible and History
• 09/02/2018
Carchemish was an important Hittite fortress and provincial capital located on the west bank of the Euphrates River. Read more…
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New Excavations at Tel Shimron
• 08/27/2018
For the first time ever, excavations have begun at Tel Shimron, the largest archaeological site in Israel’s Jezreel Valley. Read more…
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Masada Dig Reveals a Pleasure-Garden at King Herod’s Palace
• 08/20/2018
Masada—the remote mountain-plateau in the Judean Desert, where Herod built a palace-fortress and where Jewish Zealots made their last stand against the Romans—is being excavated once again. Read more…
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The Masada Siege
• 08/19/2018
What do we know about the Roman siege of Masada? We must consider both the account given by Josephus and the surviving archaeological evidence in order to reconstruct what happened. Read more…
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Hellenistic Jewelry Discovered in Jerusalem
• 08/10/2018
A 2,200-year-old gold earring portraying the head of a horned animal was unearthed in the Givati Parking Lot in Jerusalem’s City of David National Park. Read more…
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What the Temple Mount Floor Looked Like
• 08/05/2018
More than a hundred colorful polished stone tiles have been recovered by the Temple Mount Sifting Project. The tiles reveal what the Temple Mount floors looked like in Herod’s time. Read more…
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Sifting Antiquity on the Temple Mount Sifting Project
• 08/04/2018
Archaeological excavations are prohibited on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, though one project—the Temple Mount Sifting Project—has been analyzing soil that came from the Temple Mount since 2004. Learn the Read more…
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The Temple Mount in the Herodian Period (37 BC–70 A.D.)
• 08/03/2018
Archaeological architect Leen Ritmeyer presents drawings of the Temple Mount in the Herodian period. Read more…
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Canaanite Fortress Discovered in the City of David
• 08/02/2018
Excavations around the Gihon Spring in the City of David uncovered a massive 3,800-year-old fortress. Read more…
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Condemned to Mine Copper
• 07/19/2018
Sending condemned prisoners to mine copper in the Faynan in present-day Jordan was a popular form of early Christian persecution in the Roman Empire. Read more…
