VIII. The World in General. We arrange on the last column events showing the general progress of the world outside of the Bible lands. The student will note that Bible History antedates the annals of Greece and Rome by many centuries.
THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.
THE OLD TESTAMENT WORLD.
I. Extent. The Old Testament World embraces the seas and lands between 30° and 54° east longitude, or from the mouth of the Nile to that of the Persian Gulf; and between 27° and 40° north latitude, from the parallel south of Mount Sinai to that north of Mount Ararat. The total extent of territory is about 1,400 miles from east to west and 900 miles from north to south, aggregating 1,260,000 square miles. Deducting from this the space occupied by the Mediterranean Sea and other large bodies of water, the land will include about 1,110,000 square miles, or one-third the extent of the United States, excluding Alaska. Unlike the United States, however, nearly two-thirds of this extent is a vast desert, and uninhabitable, so that the portion actually occupied by man is less than an eighth of that included in the American Union.
II. Seas. This world of the Old Testament embraces several large bodies of water. 1. The Caspian Sea, the largest body of water surrounded by land on the globe, occupies its northeastern corner. 2. The Persian Gulf, the outlet of the great rivers of the Old Testament history, is in its southeastern border. 3. The two arms of the northern end of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Akaba, are on its southwestern side. 4. The Mediterranean Sea, "the great sea toward the going down of the sun" (Josh. 1:4), forms a part of its western boundary. These are its largest seas; but besides these may be named three others, all salt lakes, imbedded in its mountain system. 5. The Dead Sea, called in the Bible "Sea of the Plain," and "Salt Sea," lying 1,290 feet below the Mediterranean, and situated in the land of Palestine; 6. Lake Van, anciently Arsissa, in Armenia; and 7. Lake Urumiyeh, in Media. Neither of the last two are referred to in the Bible.
