The Patriarchs
c. 2000 BC · one of the six stops on the atlas era rail
Slide the atlas to the Patriarchs era and the map redraws itself as the world stood about 2000 BC: cities rise to their height, fall to ruin, or have not yet been built. Every change below comes from the era notes written for this stop.
Painted vignettes
The map at this stop
- Jerusalem · standing. Salem in those days, where Melchizedek met Abraham with bread and wine.
- Jericho · standing. A strong walled town of the old world; its great ramparts rose in this age.
- Shiloh · absent from the map.
- Samaria · absent from the map.
- Nineveh · standing. One of the great cities of old, built in the days after the flood.
- Babylon · standing. Babel of the great tower, in the plain of Shinar; its days of empire were still far off.
- Ur of the Chaldeans · standing. The city Abraham was called out of. Its empire had just fallen, and the great ziggurat stood over a fading city.
- Haran · standing. Terah settled here; Jacob served Laban here for his wives.
- Hazor · standing. The greatest city of Canaan in its age, named in the old archives of the east.
- Susa (Shushan) · standing. An ancient royal city of Elam, old before Abraham left Ur.
- Damascus · standing. Abraham pursued the eastern kings past this city; his steward Eliezer came from here.
- Dan · standing. Called Laish in those days, a quiet town in the far north.
- Bethel · standing. Still called Luz when Jacob dreamed here.