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Biblical Sites & Archaeology
Excavated sites, fortresses, pools, tombs and monuments tied to the biblical narrative, with what archaeology has actually recovered at each.
- Caesarea MaritimaCaesarea Maritima was a monumental Roman port city built by Herod the Great (c. 22–10/9…
- MasadaMasada was a mountaintop palace-fortress built by Herod the Great atop an isolated…
- HerodiumHerodium was a palace-fortress built by Herod the Great starting around 23 BC, chosen by…
- QumranQumran is the archaeological site near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea where the…
- BethsaidaBethsaida was a fishing village on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee named in the…
- ChorazinChorazin (Korazim) was a Jewish town on a plateau in the Upper Galilee, about 2.5 miles…
- SepphorisSepphoris (Tzippori) served as the administrative capital of the Galilee under Herod…
- Beth SheanBeth Shean was the site where, after the Israelites' defeat at Mount Gilboa, the…
- Caesarea PhilippiCaesarea Philippi, known in antiquity as Panias after the Greek god Pan, was a city at…
- JerichoJericho is described in Joshua 6 as the first Canaanite city conquered by the…
- BethelBethel ("House of God") is where the patriarch Jacob dreamed of a ladder reaching to…
- ShilohShiloh served as Israel's central worship site and home of the Tabernacle for roughly…
- HebronHebron is where Abraham purchased the Cave of Machpelah as a burial site for Sarah, and…
- BeershebaBeersheba ("Well of the Oath/Seven") marks the traditional southern boundary of Israel…
- MegiddoMegiddo is the site referenced as "Armageddon" (Har Megiddo, "Mount of Megiddo") in…
- Mount SinaiTraditionally identified since the Byzantine era as the mountain where Moses received…
- ShechemShechem was a major Canaanite and early Israelite city where Abraham first built an…
- GethsemaneGethsemane is the garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives where Jesus prayed in agony…
- GolgothaGolgotha ("place of the skull") is where the Gospels record Jesus was crucified, and the…
- EmmausEmmaus is the village where, according to Luke 24:13-35, the resurrected Jesus appeared…
- City of DavidThe City of David is the oldest inhabited core of ancient Jerusalem, on the ridge south…
- MachaerusMachaerus was a Hasmonean-built, Herod-rebuilt hilltop fortress-palace east of the Dead…
- Mount PrecipiceMount Precipice, on Nazareth's southern edge, is traditionally identified as the site…
- KursiKursi, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, is traditionally identified as the…
- TabghaTabgha, near Capernaum, is the traditional site of Jesus's miracle of feeding the 5,000…
- Mount of BeatitudesA hill on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, between Capernaum and Tiberias…
- Bethany Beyond the JordanAn archaeological site on the eastern bank of the Jordan River, traditionally identified…
- Ein KaremA former village, now a Jerusalem neighborhood, traditionally identified since the…
- Shepherds' FieldA site in the fields southeast of Bethlehem, in the town of Beit Sahour, traditionally…
- PergaA major city of Pamphylia, Perga was the first stop for Paul and Barnabas in Asia Minor…
- MagdalaMagdala was a prosperous Jewish fishing town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee…
- Pool of BethesdaThe Pool of Bethesda, near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, is the setting of John 5, where…
- Pool of SiloamThe Pool of Siloam, fed by the Gihon Spring, is where in John 9 Jesus sends a man born…
- Garden TombThe Garden Tomb is a rock-cut tomb near a skull-shaped rocky outcropping outside…
- Western WallThe Western Wall is the surviving section of the massive retaining wall Herod the Great…
- SalamisSalamis was the first stop of Paul and Barnabas's first missionary journey, where Acts…
- PaphosPaphos was the Roman capital of Cyprus and, per Acts 13:6-12, the city where Paul and…
- Basilica of St. JohnThis monumental Byzantine basilica sits atop Ayasuluk Hill in Selçuk, near ancient…
- PataraPatara was the chief port of Lycia. Acts 21:1-2 records that Paul changed ships here at…
- AssosAssos was a fortified Aeolian port city on the Gulf of Adramyttium. Acts 20:13-14…
- HierapolisHierapolis was a Hellenistic-Roman city in Phrygia near Colossae and Laodicea, part of…
- AcrocorinthAcrocorinth is the steep acropolis rising above ancient Corinth, a city where Paul lived…
- Nazareth Synagogue ChurchThis small church in Nazareth's old market stands on the traditional site of the town…
- Upper RoomThe Cenacle on Mount Zion is the traditional site of the Last Supper, where Jesus…
- Antonia FortressThe Antonia Fortress was a Herodian military garrison built at the northwest corner of…
- Dominus FlevitDominus Flevit ("the Lord wept") marks the traditional spot on the western slope of the…
- St. Peter in GallicantuThe Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu ("at cock-crow") sits on the eastern slope of…
- Herod's Winter PalaceTulul Abu el-Alayiq, on the banks of Wadi Qelt southwest of modern Jericho, was the site…
- LechaionLechaion was the western harbor of ancient Corinth, connected to the city by fortified…
- Tower of DavidLater in his reign, during his great building program (c. 23 BC), Herod the Great…
- Chapel of the AscensionThis small domed edicule on the summit of the Mount of Olives marks the traditional spot…
- Church of the Pater NosterPart of a Carmelite convent on the Mount of Olives, this church stands over a grotto…
- Tomb of the Virgin MaryThis rock-cut tomb and subterranean church in the Kidron Valley, at the foot of the…
- Dormition AbbeyThe Dormition Abbey (Hagia Maria Sion Abbey) is a Benedictine church and monastery on…
- Ecce Homo ArchThe Ecce Homo Arch is a Roman monumental archway spanning the Via Dolorosa in…
- Milk GrottoThe Chapel of the Milk Grotto is a small limestone cave-shrine in Bethlehem…
- Basilica of the AnnunciationThe largest Christian church in the Middle East, the Basilica of the Annunciation marks…
- Mary's Well / Church of St. GabrielThe Greek Orthodox counter-tradition to the Basilica of the Annunciation, this site…
- Wedding Church of CanaThis Franciscan Catholic church in Kafr Kanna is the traditional site of Jesus's first…
- Street Called Straight (Via Recta)The old Roman decumanus maximus of Damascus, running roughly 1,500 meters east-west…
- House (Chapel) of AnaniasA subterranean chapel near the eastern end of the Street Called Straight, venerated as…
- Bab Kisan (St. Paul's Window)One of the seven ancient gates of Damascus, in the southeastern city wall, near where…
- Cave of the ApocalypseA grotto on a hillside on the Aegean island of Patmos, venerated since antiquity as the…
- Antipatris (Tel Afek)A city founded by Herod the Great around 9 BC and named for his father Antipater, built…
- Tomb of LazarusA rock-cut tomb in Al-Eizariya (whose Arabic name derives from "Lazarus"), on the…
- Erastus InscriptionA Latin paving-stone inscription reading ERASTVS PRO AEDILIT[AT]E S P STRAVIT ("Erastus…
- Bema of Corinth (Judgment Seat)A large raised stone platform (the Latin rostra, Greek bema) standing near the center of…
- Temple of Apollo, CorinthThe best-preserved Archaic temple at Corinth, built around 560 BCE of local limestone…
- Gallio InscriptionNine fragments of a Greek letter of the emperor Claudius to Delphi, naming "Lucius…
- Areopagus (Mars Hill)A rocky limestone outcropping immediately below the western slope of the Acropolis…
- Ancient Agora of AthensThe principal civic and commercial marketplace of ancient Athens, northwest of the…
- Temple of Artemis, EphesusOne of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis was the great pagan…
- Great Theatre of EphesusThis roughly 25,000-seat theater, carved into the western slope of Mount Pion…
- Grotto (Cave) of St. Paul, EphesusA narrow rock-cut chapel on the slope of Bülbüldağ (Nightingale Mountain) above the…
- Church of Mary (Double Church)Built in the early 5th century over an earlier Roman civic hall (the "Hall of the…
- House of the Virgin MaryA small stone house on a hillside above Ephesus venerated by Catholic and, separately…
- Tomb / Memorial of St. TimothyTimothy, Paul's close companion and the recipient of 1 & 2 Timothy, is honored by…
- Theatre of MiletusThis massive Greco-Roman theatre, seating roughly 15,000, stood at the heart of Miletus…
- Well of St. Paul, TarsusPaul described himself as "a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia" (Acts 22:3), and this…
- Sardis SynagogueThis vast synagogue — the largest known from the ancient world, with a main hall over 50…
- Martyrdom Site of Polycarp, SmyrnaPolycarp, bishop of Smyrna and a disciple of the Apostle John, was burned and then…
- Council of Nicaea SiteIn AD 325, Emperor Constantine I convened the First Ecumenical Council in the city of…
- Cave Church of St. PeterAccording to long-standing local tradition, this rock-cut cave on the slope of Mount…
- Mamertine PrisonKnown in antiquity as the Tullianum or Carcer, the Mamertine Prison at the foot of the…
- Basilica of St. Paul Outside the WallsThis basilica stands on the traditional burial site of the Apostle Paul, martyred in…
- Circus of Nero / Vatican HillBuilt by Caligula and expanded by Nero in the gardens on the Vatican Hill, this circus…
- Vatican NecropolisBeneath St. Peter's Basilica lies a Roman-era necropolis dating to the 1st-4th centuries…
- Catacombs of PriscillaOne of the oldest Christian catacombs in Rome, the Catacomb of Priscilla began as a set…
- Catacombs of San Callisto (Callixtus)The largest of Rome's underground Christian cemeteries, the Catacomb of Callixtus became…
- Appian Way / Church of Quo VadisThe Via Appia (Appian Way), begun in 312 BC by censor Appius Claudius Caecus, was…
- Forum of Appius & Three TavernsThese were two Roman waystations on the Via Appia south of Rome — Forum Appii roughly 43…
- RhegiumRhegium, founded c. 720 BC by Greek colonists from Chalcis, sat on the Strait of Messina…
- SyracuseFounded by Corinthian settlers in 733 BC, Syracuse became one of the greatest cities of…
- Neapolis (Philippi's Port)Neapolis was the harbor town where Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke landed after sailing…
- AmphipolisAmphipolis was a major Macedonian city on the Via Egnatia that Paul, Silas, and Timothy…
- ApolloniaApollonia was the second waypoint Paul, Silas, and Timothy passed through between…
- St. Paul's BaySt. Paul's Bay is the traditional site where the ship carrying Paul as a prisoner ran…
- Megiddo Church (Christian Prayer Hall)In 2005, prisoners doing salvage excavation ahead of a Megiddo Prison expansion (at…
- Dura-Europos House ChurchAn ordinary Roman-era house at the frontier city of Dura-Europos was remodeled around AD…
- Traditional Site of Eutychus's FallActs 20:7-12 recounts that during Paul's farewell visit to Troas, a young man named…
- Council of Chalcedon SiteThe Fourth Ecumenical Council convened at Chalcedon October 8-November 1, AD 451…
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