Via Maris is one modern name for 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, Via Maris means "way of the sea", a translation of the Greek ὁδὸν θαλάσσης found in 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 Palestinian Mediterranean coast. It was the most important route from Egypt to Syria which followed the coastal plain before crossing over into the plain of Jezreel and the Jordan valley.
Jezreel Valley with modern road following the route of Via Maris in foreground
Gaza, also called Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip. Prior to the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, it was the most populous city in the State of Palestine, with 590,481 inhabitants in 2017.
Image: War in Gaza 023 Flickr Al Jazeera English
Image: Damage in Gaza Strip during the October 2023 28
Statue of Zeus that was unearthed in Gaza in the 20th century
Painting of Gaza by David Roberts, 1839, in The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia