Editing Via Maris

{{short description|Ancient trade route linking Egypt with Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia}}
{{more citations needed|date=November 2013}}

[[File:Ancient Levant routes.png|thumb|The Via Maris (purple), King's Highway (red), and other ancient Levantine trade routes, c. 1300 BCE]]
[[File:Via Maris 0672 (520285798).jpg|thumb|[[Jezreel Valley]] with modern road following the route of Via Maris in foreground]]

'''Via Maris''', or '''Way of Horus''' ({{langx|egy-x-middle|ḫꜣt Ḥr|4=Khet Her}}) was  an ancient [[trade route]], dating from the early [[Bronze Age]], linking [[Egypt]] with the northern empires of [[Syria]], [[Anatolia]] and [[Mesopotamia]] – along the Mediterranean coast of modern-day [[Egypt]], [[Israel]], [[Turkey]] and [[Syria]]. In [[Latin language|Latin]], ''Via Maris'' means "way of the sea", a translation of the Greek ὁδὸν θαλάσσης found in {{bibleverse|Isaiah|9:1}} of the [[Septuagint]], itself a translation of the Hebrew דֶּ֤רֶךְ הַיָּם֙.
It is a historic road that runs in part along the Israeli Mediterranean coast. It was the most important route from Egypt to Syria (the [[Fertile Crescent]]) which followed the coastal plain before crossing over into the plain of Jezreel and the Jordan valley. Other names are "Way of the [[Philistines]]", "International Trunk Road"<ref>[https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-5-JeCa2Z7hRGdXVWJkNjI4S3c/view "Northern Exposure: Launching Excavations at Tell Abil el-Qameḥ" (Abel Beth Maacah), p. 32, in ''Strata: Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society'', 2013, Vol. 31]</ref> and "International Coastal Highway."<ref>Barry J. Beitzel, [https://www.baslibrary.org/bible-review/4/5/7 "Bible Lands: How to Draw Ancient Highways on Biblical Maps"], ''Bible Review'' 4:5, October 1988</ref>

Together with the [[King's Highway (Ancient)|King's Highway]], the ''Via Maris'' was one of the major trade routes connecting [[Egypt]] and the [[Levant]] with [[Anatolia]] and [[Mesopotamia]]. The ''Via Maris'' was crossed by other trading routes, so that one could travel from Africa to Europe or from Asia to Africa. It began in [[Al Qantarah El Sharqiyya|al-Qantara]] and went east to [[Pelusium]], following the northern coast of [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]] through [[el-Arish]] and [[Rafah]]. From there it followed the coast of [[Canaan]] through [[Gaza City|Gaza]], [[Ascalon]], [[Isdud]], [[Antipatris|Aphek]] avoiding the [[Yarkon River]], and [[Tel Dor|Dor]] before turning east again through [[Tel Megiddo|Megiddo]] and the [[Jezreel Valley]] until it reached [[Tiberias]] on the [[Sea of Galilee]]. Again turning northward along the lake shore, the ''Via Maris'' passed through [[Magdala|Migdal]], [[Capernaum]], and [[Tel Hazor|Hazor]]. From Hazor it crossed the northern [[Jordan River|River Jordan]] at what later became known as [[Jacob's Ford]], then climbed sharply over the [[Golan Heights]] and wound its way northeast into [[Damascus]]. Here travellers could continue on the King's Highway as far as the [[Euphrates|Euphrates River]] or proceed northward into Anatolia.

==Name and controversy==
The historic name used in [[Ancient Egyptian|Ancient Egypt]] was "'''Way of Horus'''".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hoffmeier |first=James |title=&quot;A Highway out of Egypt&quot;: the Main Road from Egypt to Canaan |url=https://www.academia.edu/6106612 |journal=Desert Road Archaeology Archaeology in Ancient Egypt and Beyond. (Eds. F. Förester & H. Reimer; Africa Praehistorica 26, Köln: Heinrich-Barth-Institut)}}</ref> According to [[Anson Rainey]] (1981),<ref>Anson Rainey, "Toponomic Problems (cont.)" in Tel Aviv 8 (1981), cited after Stephen Langfur, [http://www.netours.com/content/view/101/1/  The "Via Maris" (netours.com)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915150827/http://www.netours.com/content/view/101/1/ |date=2015-09-15 }}, cf. also Anson F. Rainey and R. Steven Notley's ''Carta's New Century Handbook and Atlas of the Bible''(2007), p. 76: "The coastal trunk route (popularly and wrongly called ''Via Maris''),..."</ref>
"Via Maris" derives from the Latin translation of {{bibleverse|Isaiah|9:1}} (in the [[Hebrew Bible]], 8:23) – "by the way of the sea".<ref>Isaiah 9:1/Hebrew Bible Isaiah 8:23: "In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, '''by the way of the sea''', along the Jordan." The [[Vulgate]] (the Christian Bible, both the Old and [[inkNew Testament]] in Latin translation), {{bibleverse||Matthew|4:15|4}} reads: "terra Zabulon et terra Nephthalim '''via maris''' trans Iordanen Galilaeae gentium" – "The land of [[Zebulun]] and the land of [[Naphtali]], '''by the way of the sea''', beyond the [[Jordan River|Jordan]], Galilee of the Gentiles." ([[NKJV]] translation)</ref> The prophet was probably referring to the road from [[Dan (ancient city)|Dan]] to the sea at [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]], passing through [[Abel-beth-maachah]],<ref>[https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-5-JeCa2Z7hRGdXVWJkNjI4S3c/view Nava Panitz-Cohen et al., "Northern Exposure: Launching Excavations at Tell Abil el-Qameḥ" (Abel Beth Maacah), p. 32 in ''Strata: Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society'', 2013, Vol. 31]</ref> which marked the northern border of [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Israel]] at the time of the Assyrian conquest.  

This Egypt-to-Damascus route is designated by [[Barry J. Beitzel]] as the Great Trunk Road in ''The New Moody Atlas of the Bible ''(2009), p.&nbsp;85. John D. Currid and David P. Barrett use this name in the ''ESV Bible Atlas'' (2010), p.&nbsp;41, as do  Rainey and Notley in ''[[Carta (publisher)|Carta]]'s New Century Handbook and Atlas of the Bible'' (2007), p.&nbsp;76. Carl G. Rasmussen in the ''[[Zondervan]] Atlas of the Bible ''(2010), p.&nbsp;32, also notes the traditional misnomer and calls the Egypt–Damascus route "the International North-South Route."

Rasmussen, in agreement with Langfur and Rainey, suggests that the ''Via Maris'' was the road that connected [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] with [[Damascus]]. Beitzel, in contrast, denotes the Via Maris as a road from Ptolemais (Acco / [[Acre, Israel|Acre]]) to [[Kedesh]] (Kedesh-naphtali) in the Galilee – also leading west to east, but slightly further south and not reaching so far inland.

==See also==
{{Commons category|Via Maris}}
===Ancient routes===
* [[Barid]], Muslim postal network renewed during Mamluk period and connecting Cairo with Damascus
* [[King's Highway (ancient)]] – an alternative, more easterly ancient route between Egypt and Mesopotamia
* [[Salah al-Din Road]] – the main highway of the Gaza Strip, crossing the territory from north to south
* [[Way of the Patriarchs]] – the biblical north-to-south route through the mountains of Canaan
* [[Grand Trunk Road]] – one of Asia's oldest and longest major roads linking South Asia and Central Asia.

===Sites along Via Maris===
* Migdal Aphek/[[Majdal Yaba]], east of Tel Aphek
* [[Shimron]], now Tel Shimron
* Tel Aphek/[[Antipatris]], at the springs of the Yarkon

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Trade route 2}}

[[Category:Trade routes]]
[[Category:Ancient roads and tracks]]
[[Category:Ancient Near East]]
[[Category:Ancient Israel and Judah]]
[[Category:Geography of Egypt]]
[[Category:Geography of Palestine (region)]]
[[Category:Geography of Syria]]
[[Category:History of Palestine (region)]]
[[Category:Latin words and phrases]]
[[Category:Roman roads in Syria and Palestina]]
[[Category:Pelusium]]
[[Category:Jezreel Valley]]