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Via Maris, orWay of Horus was an ancienttrade route, dating from the earlyBronze Age, linkingEgypt with the northern empires ofSyria,Anatolia andMesopotamia – along the Mediterranean coast of modern-dayEgypt,Israel,Turkey andSyria.[1] InLatin,Via Maris means "way of the sea", a translation of the Greek ὁδὸν θαλάσσης found inIsaiah 9:1 of theSeptuagint, itself a translation of the Hebrew דֶּ֤רֶךְ הַיָּם֙.[2]It is a historic road that runs in part along the Israeli Mediterranean coast.[3] It was the most important route from Egypt to Syria (theFertile Crescent) which followed the coastal plain before crossing over into the plain of Jezreel and the Jordan valley.[4] Other names are "Way of thePhilistines",[5] "Great Trunk Road"[6][7] and "International Coastal Highway."[8]
Together with theKing's Highway, theVia Maris was one of the major trade routes connectingEgypt and theLevant withAnatolia andMesopotamia. TheVia Maris was crossed by other trading routes, so that one could travel from Africa to Europe or from Asia to Africa. It began inal-Qantara and went east toPelusium, following the northern coast ofSinai throughel-Arish andRafah. From there it followed the coast ofCanaan throughGaza,Ascalon,Isdud,Aphek avoiding theYarkon River, andDor before turning east again throughMegiddo and theJezreel Valley until it reachedTiberias on theSea of Galilee. Again turning northward along the lake shore, theVia Maris passed throughMigdal,Capernaum, andHazor. From Hazor it crossed the northernRiver Jordan at what later became known asJacob's Ford, then climbed sharply over theGolan Heights and wound its way northeast intoDamascus. Here travellers could continue on the King's Highway as far as theEuphrates River or proceed northward into Anatolia.
The historic name used inAncient Egypt was "Way of Horus" (Middle Egyptian:ḫꜣt Ḥr,lit. 'Khet Her').[9]
According toAnson Rainey (1981),[10] "Via Maris" derives from the Latin translation ofIsaiah 9:1 (in theHebrew Bible, 8:23) – "by the way of the sea".[11] The prophet was probably referring to the road fromDan to the sea atTyre, passing throughAbel-beth-maachah,[12] which marked the northern border ofIsrael at the time of the Assyrian conquest.
This Egypt-to-Damascus route is designated byBarry J. Beitzel as the Great Trunk Road inThe New Moody Atlas of the Bible(2009), p. 85. John D. Currid and David P. Barrett use this name in theESV Bible Atlas (2010), p. 41, as do Rainey and Notley inCarta's New Century Handbook and Atlas of the Bible (2007), p. 76. Carl G. Rasmussen in theZondervan Atlas of the Bible(2010), p. 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 theVia Maris was the road that connectedTyre withDamascus. Beitzel, in contrast, denotes the Via Maris as a road from Ptolemais (Acco /Acre) toKedesh (Kedesh-naphtali) in the Galilee – also leading west to east, but slightly further south and not reaching so far inland.
