643. The lands ceased to be the focal point for the ancient world in the five centuries between the rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem and the birth of Jesus. New empires rose, this time in Europe. First the Greeks and then the Romans overran the Bible lands. The Near Eastern peoples watched their land become ravaged of trees and precious metals to supply their conquerors. What forests had survived were cut down. The wilderness gave way to fields, and wild beasts were largely replaced by domesticated animals.
644. Most rivers in the Bible lands dry up during the rainless summer, but not the Nile. Heavy rains and melting snow feed the tributaries that form the Nile River. The torrent of water reaches Egypt during the late summer and it overflows the banks, leaving a fresh layer of fertile moist soil along its banks.
645. The Holy Land is so small that a soaring eagle can see almost all of it at once on a clear day. From Dan to Beersheba is little more than 150 miles, roughly the same distance as from New York City to Albany. From east to west, the Holy Land is even narrower. At its widest point, a hundred miles lie between the Mediterranean coast and the Arabian Desert on the east. The land in which such great events took place is only a little larger than the state of New Jersey and smaller than Belgium.
646. This land that gave birth to our civilization is inconspicuous on a map of the world. But no other part of the world, square foot for square foot, has played such a historical role in human history.
647. The Holy Land's position at the crossroads of three continents makes it a meeting ground for species of plants and animals of different origins. Almost every kind of bird, for example, that inhabits northern Africa, southern Europe, and western Asia has been seen at one time or another in the Bible lands. The fauna comes from as far away as central Asia (the horse), equatorial Africa (the crocodile), and western Europe (the stork).
