Via Maris

The coastal highway that linked Egypt with Syria and Mesopotamia through the Levant from the Bronze Age.

Overview

The name is a modern scholarly label taken from a Latin phrase in the Vulgate, but the road itself was among the oldest strategic routes in the Near East. It left the Nile Delta, crossed northern Sinai along the coast, ran up through Gaza and the plain of Sharon, turned inland through the Megiddo pass into the Jezreel Valley, and continued toward Damascus and the Euphrates. Caravans of grain, copper, timber, textiles and luxury goods used it, and so did every army from the pharaohs to the Romans, which is why fortified sites such as Megiddo saw so many battles. Control of the route meant control of land trade between Africa and Asia.