Dear all,

Last night, I was on Google Earth for some reason and had thereafter the idea of having a look at the Gaza strip and went north towards famous biblical locations. The resolution of the satellite photos is poor and outdated for obvious reasons but there are very interesting pictures anyway. Have you ever done the same on Google Earth ? Looking for and finding pictures related to the "Promised Land" and to the Biblical account ? I'll share some with you here on that thread. If you want to participate, please do so !

Whilst using Streetview in Jerusalem or elsewhere, whenever you find a great place, just type PrintScrn and then paste the picture in Paint (crop it if needed) and that's it !

 

Streambed in the Valley of Elah. Is it here that David chose the stone that he slung at Goliath ?

https://maps.google.com/?q=31.687968,34.946976

 

Elijah's gate at Mount Sinai.

 

Here is Tyre and some great pictures of it that I found here and there. The second picture is of remains of the harbour of Tyre. The third is of the same southern location, the remains of the Egyptian harbour.









There is a limitation of 4 pictures per post so I'll post the rest of the pictures in another post.

 

Dear all,

Here is the location, some pictures and interesting links about Nebuchadnezzar's inscriptions of Wadi Brissa, Lebanon. I couldn't find the exact location on Google Earth although I've followed the road south from the village of Brissa to the farthest possible from it. The exact location isn't indicated. The articles I found about it just say that it is a few kilometres south from the village.

https://maps.google.com/?q=34.442556,36.316455







A Cuneiform Inscription at Wadi Brissa (from here)

Going up the valley of Sharbeen (also spelt Charbine) above Hermel to the north-west, at one of the sources of the Orontes one comes to the village of Brissa. Then going south at the bottom of the gorge one finds two opposing rock faces, and on either side, three meters or so high and two wide, there remains visible a cuneiform inscription which has been much damaged and quite recently barred with streaks of blue whitewash, a tragic case of vandalism.

This inscription, which in 1905 was still legible but is now decipherable only in parts, was translated by Weissbach, a German. Inscribed in the Akkadian language, it relates the deeds of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, who came to Lebanon to procure cedar wood in order to worthily embellish his palace and the temple of the god Mardok, protector of his city and his kingdom, between the years 604 and 562 B.C.. It was during the time of this king that the Great Exile of the Jews occurred, in 587 B.C., but the stele of Brissa seems somewhat older, for the king represents himself as restoring the situation and as being in fact the adversary of the Pharoah Nekao, who had recently defeated the Assyrian Empire and extended his power over the “Mashraqâ€, the Levant – what is now Syria, Palestine and Lebanon. Nabuchodonosor in fact had set about regaining these regions:

“Trusting in the power of our gods Nabu and Mardok, I mobilized an army and launched an expedition ... I cleansed Lebanon of its enemies and brought back there its scattered children. Then I did something that no one before me had done, making roads across the steep mountains, cleaving the rocks and opening the ways, leaving routes for the transport of the cedars, mighty giant trees, with beautiful wood of excellent deep color, which grow in Lebanon like reeds in a river. I crossed deep valleys and opened for my army passages through the rocks. I reached the mountains of the cedar trees with their enchanting scent that no other god had breathed in and which no other king had cut down, meaning to use them for our palaces and for the temples of our gods Nabu and Mardok. And I ensured for Lebanon peace and security, and to teach a lesson to those who lusted after this land I raised this stele where I proclaim myself king of this country whose reign is without end (Greetings to him who is ready to listen!)â€

Panoramic view of the location here.

Please read from here :

The appropriateness of this dream is better realized when we learn that during the larger part of his
active life Nebuchadnezzar made repeated expeditions into the forests of Lebanon, from which he derived
the large beams with which to carry on his perpetual building operations. The longest and one of the most
important inscriptions of this king is found in duplicate form in the Lebanon Mountains, one on the rocks of
Wadi Brissa, a valley west of the upper Orontes, while the other is at the mouth of the Dog River, north of
Beirut. But the king personally cut down some of the great cedars with his own hands, and we have
repeated evidences of his profound admiration for these majestic monarchs of the forest. In his book,
Boutflower has an entire chapter entitled “The Royal Woodcutter,†which is devoted to the archaeological
discoveries connected with this subject.

(...)

Some of the documents left by Nebuchadnezzar give us an intimation of his ideal for his country.
He wanted Babylon to be a great center for the good and the prosperity of all the world. In the famous Wadi
Brissa inscription in the mountains of Lebanon, made many years (probably) before this dream came to
him, we have the following as the king’s high conception of the position of Babylon: “Under her
everlasting shadow I gathered all men in peace. A reign of abundance, years of plenty I caused to be in my
land.†- Boutflower, In and Around the Book of Daniel, pages 79, 80.

[end of quote]

Historical texts seem to indicate that these inscriptions were carved around the time of the fall of Tyre, Jerusalem and the conquest of the whole region.

 

Two other pictures of Wadi Brissa, the first is a close-up of the text (the previous pictures were from too far) and the second is the same thing but with a recent act of vandalism...

 

Here are a few pictures more of two other locations where Nebuchadnezzar's inscriptions were found. It's respectively at Wadi as-Saba and Shir as-Sanam. The distance between the both is of about 60 m according to one website. The discovery is rather recent because it took place in 2007, that may explain why I had a hard time finding details about it. I couldn't find the exact location but found the valley anyway.

https://maps.google.com/?q=34.581002778,36.37160278

 

Explanations, from here :

In the little valley known as Wadi as-Saba, or Valley of the Lion, are two steles that appear to go back to Neo-Babylonian times. The first represents a figure wearing a tiara. Facing right, he is being attacked by a lion standing on its rear legs. The hunter, probably royal, is seizing the lion by the neck with his left hand while his right hand holds a dagger at the ready. Sixty meters above the stele of the lion, at a place known as "Shir as-Sanam" or Cliff of the Statue, is another rock-carved stele in the shape of a cone. The bas-relief shows a king facing right, holding an unidentified object in his right hand and a scepter in his left, Above the king, who wears a tiara, are the symbols of divinity: the seven-pointed stars of Ishtar and the crescent moon of sin.


Known Nebuchadnezzar's inscriptions as of yet :

 

Here are a few pictures more that I found about Wadi Brissa whilst making the research about Nahr el-Kelb. It's easier to distinguish therein the shapes of the figures carved in the stone and the wide extent of the cuneiform text carved on the face of the stone. (Edit: I've kept the first picture wide on purpose so the inscriptions are easier to spot).



"Nebuchadnezzar carved the praises of the Cedars of Lebanon on the rocky walls of Nahr el-Kelb in the year 537 B.C. and again here on stelae in the Wadi al-Barissa in the midst of the Forest of Hermel on the other side of Mount Lebanon, during the same year. In the Wadi al-Barissa carvings, the Babylonian king also depicted himself standing before a Cedar of Lebanon and in the cuneiform text he describes the cedars as offerings for his god, Marduk." (From Condè See Lebanon, 1955.)

 

Here are the location of Nahr el-Kelb and a few pictures of the different steles that can be found there (in the next post). I've known that location for long but I learned many other interesting details in my recent research. If you're like me and are fond of history and archeology, you may therefore like them too and that may incite you to make more research on your own, according to your personal subjects of interest.



Here, the different steles are located all along the left bank of the Nahr el-Kelb (excepted Nebuchadnezzar's) and above the tunnel (see the white lines, which is the path).



Northern side of the tunnel :

 

Southern side of the tunnel :





Bridge at the feet of which Nebuchadnezzar's stele is located, hidden under the bushes.





Stele 1. Carved by Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BCE), that stele located on the right bank up against the bridge, is very difficult to find. Its cuneiform caracters are more or less hidden under the vegetation.

Stele 2. Text in Arabic carved in the rock by the sultan Seif Eddine (1421) in front of the second bridge and attributing the building of the latter to sultan Barqouq.

Stele 3. Latin inscription by the emperor Caracalla (211-217).

Stele 4. Entry of general Gouraud with his troops in Damas, on July 20[SUP]th[/SUP], 1920.

Stele 5. Egyptian stele destroyed in order to make room for an inscription commemorating the French expedition of Napoléon III in Lebanon (1861).

Steles 6, 7, 8. Assyrian kings. Steles damaged because of age. It's difficult to distinguish the bas-reliefs. The 8[SUP]th[/SUP] stele can hardly be deciphered.

Stele 9. Located high up, it commemorates the take of Homs, Damas and Alep by the Brittish in October 1918.

Stele 10. British inscription about the English and French military presence in the region (October 1918). Just after stele 10, the path goes upwards against the rocky promontory and goes on above the tunnel.

Steles 11 and 12. Greek inscriptions.

Stele 13. Assyrian king.

Stele 14. Ramsès II is depicted here with a prisonner kneeling at his feet before the god Ra-Harakhte.

Stele 15. Assyrian king.

Stele 16. Ramsès II pulling the hair of a prisonner and sacrificing him to the god Amon.

Stele 17. Relatively well preserved stele of the Assyrian king Assarhaddon – the text in cuneiform writing covers the whole bas-relief.

 

Dear all,

Here are the stelas of Nahr el-Kelb in chronological sequence (from here) :

[TABLE="class: cms_table"]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]14
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]1275[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]The god Ra gives the sword of victory to Ramesses II after his First Syrian Campaign; "year four" is still legible[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]16[/TD]
[TD]1269[/TD]
[TD]In front of the god Amun, Ramesses II is about to strike at an enemy, after his Sixth Syrian Campaign; "year ten" is still legible[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]8[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Unknown[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Ramesses II slaying an enemy in front of the god Ptah; probably, the relief mentioned by Herodotus (more)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]17[/TD]
[TD]671[/TD]
[TD]Esarhaddon, after conquering Egypt[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]6[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Unknown[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Unidentified Assyrian king[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]7[/TD]
[TD]Unknown[/TD]
[TD]Unidentified Assyrian king[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]13[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Unknown[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Unidentified Assyrian king[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]15[/TD]
[TD]Unknown[/TD]
[TD]Unidentified Assyrian king[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]1[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]605-562[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]The Babylonian king Nebuchadznezzar[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]12[/TD]
[TD]Third century BCE[/TD]
[TD]Unidentified Hellenistic king, perhaps Antiochus III the Great after his victory in the Fifth Syrian War[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]3[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]215 CE[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]The Roman emperor Caracalla, travelling from Antioch to Alexandria (CIL 3.206)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]11[/TD]
[TD]382-383[/TD]
[TD]Inscription by governor Proculus of Phoenicia, who built a road and sacrificed in Baalbek[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]2[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]1382-1399[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Inscription to commemorate the building of a bridge by the Mamluq sultan Barquq[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]5[/TD]
[TD]1861[/TD]
[TD]Inscription of Napoleon III to commemorate a French intervention in the conflict between Druzes and Maronites[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]18[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]1901[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Text on an Ottoman bridge[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]9[/TD]
[TD]1918[/TD]
[TD]Collapse of the Ottoman Empire: Capture of Damascus, Homs, and Aleppo by Arabian and Allied troops[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]10[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]1918[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Collapse of the Ottoman Empire: Capture of Beyrut by French and British troops[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]1920[/TD]
[TD]French intervention in Arabian Syria: general Gouraud's inscription to commemorate general Goybet's victory at Maysalun, and the entry of French troops into Damascus[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]-[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]1927[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Monument for the French garrison of Beyrut (originally from Beyrut, moved to this place after the Mandate of the League of Nations had ended)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]19[/TD]
[TD]1941[/TD]
[TD]The Free French liberate Damascus from Vichy troops[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]20[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]1942[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Text on railroad bridge[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]21[/TD]
[TD]1946[/TD]
[TD]Evacuation of the foreign forces from Lebanon; beginning of the independence[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]22[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]2000[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]Evacuation of the Israeli forces from southern Lebanon[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


In the following post, you'll find the pictures of the most relevant stelas with the respective numbers corresponding to the list above.

 

14



16



17



6

 

7



13



15

 

Dear all, here is a quick research about the tomb of Cyrus the Great in Iran.

https://maps.google.com/?q=30.193959,53.167239

 

Here the epitaph said to have been carved on his tomb :

"O man, whoever you are and wherever you come from, for I know you will come, I am Cyrus who won the Persians their empire. Do not therefore begrudge me this bit of earth that covers my bones." from there.