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Original photograph
Site
Karahantepe
An excavation area in the Taş Tepeler project in southeastern Anatolia, where a faced T-shaped pillar was announced in 2025.
The Karahantepe excavation on 22 August 2024. Ropes and work supports are modern. The T-shaped pillar in this frame is not the faced pillar announced in 2025, and the photograph is not a reconstruction of the Neolithic site
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Original photograph
City
Şanlıurfa
A modern city in southeastern Turkey, near Göbekli Tepe, whose museum displays Urfa Man.
A modern view of Şanlıurfa from Urfa Castle, 5 July 2006, including a mosque and minarets of the later city. It shows the contemporary city, not Göbekli Tepe or the Neolithic period
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Original photograph
City
Qazvin
Iranian city that served as a Safavid capital in the later sixteenth century and was associated with manuscript arts.
The Chehel Sotun pavilion in Qazvin, in a modern photograph uploaded in 2009. The city's heritage, not a proven production site for the Falnama leaf in the study. Abtin, CC BY-SA 3.0
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Original photograph
City
Ephesus
Ancient city in western Türkiye with major Roman and early Christian phases.
The Library of Celsus at Ephesus in a modern photograph. This Roman monument identifies the city, not the Sleepers' cave. Emre Dokur, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Original photograph
City
Tangier
City in northern Morocco by the Strait of Gibraltar, proposed in one interpretation of the Quran's meeting of the seas.
Tangier and its port from the sea, 18 September 2008; a modern city view, not a confirmed location of Moses' story
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Original photograph
Site
Saba: the ancient South Arabian kingdom
An ancient South Arabian kingdom centered in present-day Yemen and prominent in the first millennium BCE; its attestation does not establish the Queen of Sheba's biography.
Copper-alloy votive plaque with a Sabaean dedicatory inscription, South Arabia, late first millennium BCE. A witness to Sabaean writing, not to the queen's identity. Met 1993.169; public domain
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Original photograph
Site
Derbent
Caspian-coast city in Russia's Dagestan with Sasanian fortifications; its existence does not identify Dhul Qarnayn's barrier.
Derbent's northern city wall in Dagestan, photographed in 2018. It shows a real fortification, not proof of Gog and Magog's barrier
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Original photograph
Site
Lydia
Ancient kingdom in western Anatolia with its capital at Sardis; neither a modern state nor a synonym for Magog.
Artemis temple remains at Sardis, ancient Lydia's capital. This temple postdates Gyges; the photograph locates the site rather than his reign
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Original photograph
Site
Aulis
Ancient place on the Boeotian coast near the Euripus Strait in Greece; setting of Iphigenia's Greek story and site of a fifth-century BCE Artemis temple.
Artemis sanctuary remains at Aulis, Greece; George E. Koronaios, 2021. Evidence for a cult site, not for Iphigenia's episode
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Original photograph
Site
Tauris
Ancient Greek name for Taurian territory on the Black Sea, associated with today's Crimean peninsula; the setting of Euripides' Iphigenia play.
Rocky Black Sea coast in the Crimean peninsula, modern photograph. Regional context for Tauris, not the site of Iphigenia's temple in the play
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Original photograph
Site
Zion
Name of a stronghold linked to David's city in 2 Samuel, later extended to Jerusalem and its religious centre; its referent changes across texts.
Modern excavations at the northern end of Jerusalem's eastern hill, photographed in 2011. Context for the city's history, not the site of Abraham's narrated sacrifice
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Original photograph
Site
Moriah
The land named in Genesis 22 as Abraham's destination; 2 Chronicles later associates Mount Moriah with the Jerusalem Temple site, not an independently located journey.
Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, photographed in 2013. 2 Chronicles associates Mount Moriah with the Temple site; this modern view illustrates that later association, not an independently located Genesis mountain
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Original photograph
City
Latakia
A coastal city in Syria, south of ancient Ugarit at Ras Shamra.
Latakia photographed by Frédéric Gadmer on 27 October 1921, an autochrome, A30032S. A historical city view, rather than the ruins of Ugarit. Musée Albert-Kahn, Département des Hauts-de-Seine
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Original photograph
Site
Troy / Hisarlık
Archaeological site in northwestern Turkey associated with Troy in Greek tradition.
Archaeological walls at Troy/Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, photographed in 2012. The site’s remains alone do not establish the Iliad’s detailed account of the Trojan War
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Original photograph
Site
Mount Olympus
Mountain in northern Greece associated in ancient traditions with the divine community’s dwelling.
Slopes of Mount Olympus, Greece, photographed in 2018. A geographical view; the gods’ residence in the epics belongs to their poetic representation of the world
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Original photograph
Site
Crete
Greek island in the eastern Mediterranean, associated in Hesiod with hiding the infant Zeus.
Mountain landscape in the Lefka Ori of Crete, near Pachnes, 5 August 2016, according to the photographer’s metadata. A modern island view, not a location of Zeus’s hiding in the story
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Original photograph
Site
Phrygia
Historical inland Anatolian region with an Iron Age kingdom; Gordion was a major center.
Burial mounds MM and P at Gordion, in modern Türkiye. A view of Phrygian remains by Archaeologist 1950, 2 July 2019; regional archaeological context, not evidence for a specific story’s route
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Mount Kasios — Jebel Aqra
Coastal mountain in the Syrian–Turkish border area, known as Jebel Aqra and by ancient names including Kasios.
Jebel Aqra, also known as Mount Kasios, with the Mediterranean coast in the Syrian–Turkish area. Summer 2008 according to the photographer, Anthiok; the original August upload date does not establish the day of capture
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Cilicia
Historical region on Anatolia’s southern coast in modern Türkiye, with plains and uplands connected to the Levant and Anatolian interior.
The gateway known as Cleopatra’s Gate in Tarsus, a city of historical Cilicia in modern Türkiye, 3 October 2005. A view of a place in the region; the popular name does not date the visible building
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Birmingham is a city in England whose university preserves early Qur’anic parchment leaves
The public Library of Birmingham, England, on 6 September 2025. A contemporary city view; the Qur’anic leaves are held by the university’s Cadbury Research Library, a different institution
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
New York City
New York City is in the United States and houses the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Lower Manhattan, New York City, seen from Governors Island in 2017. A contemporary city view; the Metropolitan Museum mentioned in the definition is not shown
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city of religious importance in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Jerusalem’s Old City seen from the north, photographed on 20 July 2012. The Dome of the Rock and the Mount of Olives appear in the background. This modern view brings together landmarks from several periods; it differs from the city in the time of the kingdom of Judah
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Kingdom of Judah
Judah was an ancient southern Levantine kingdom centered on Jerusalem in the Iron Age
Detail of the Assyrian reliefs showing the siege of Lachish, a city of the kingdom of Judah, during Sennacherib’s campaign of 701 BCE. Carved at Nineveh around 700–692 BCE and held in the British Museum. Photographed on 12 September 2010; an Assyrian representation of the event from the attackers’ perspective
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
The Levant
The Levant is a regional name for lands along the eastern Mediterranean
The harbour of Byblos, Lebanon, photographed on 4 September 2008. This modern view offers an example of the Levant’s Mediterranean coast. The region extends beyond this city, and its boundaries vary with period and context
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is a salt lake in the Jordan Rift Valley, near sites where ancient manuscripts were found
Sunset over the Dead Sea from its eastern shore at Ghor Al-Haditha, Jordan, on 26 October 2018. The Judean Mountains appear on the western horizon. The photograph illustrates the lake’s geography; the Qumran manuscript caves lie elsewhere on its western side
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Tyre
Tyre is a city on the coast of present-day southern Lebanon and an important ancient Phoenician center
The restored Roman triumphal arch at Al Bass in Tyre, Lebanon, with aqueduct remains on its right. The arch dates to the second century CE. This photograph, taken on 19 November 2019, shows a later phase in the Phoenician city’s history
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Memphis in Egypt
Memphis is an ancient Egyptian city near Mit Rahina south of present-day Cairo
The large statue of Ramesses II at Memphis/Mit Rahina, Egypt, photographed on 17 June 2007. It belongs to the New Kingdom in the thirteenth century BCE, one of the later phases in the city’s long history
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Hermopolis, Khemenu
Hermopolis is an ancient Egyptian city at Ashmunein, called Khemenu in Egyptian
A colossal statue of Thoth as a baboon at Ashmunein/Hermopolis, from Amenhotep III’s reign in the fourteenth century BCE. Photographed on 18 September 2006; it offers a material example of the city’s association with Thoth
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Contextual definition
Heliopolis, ancient Iunu
Heliopolis is the Greek name of Egyptian Iunu, at Matariya in northern present-day Cairo
The obelisk of Senusret I at Matariya in Cairo, at the site of ancient Iunu/Heliopolis, 2 September 2001. It belongs to the Middle Kingdom, in the twentieth century BCE; the monument’s date differs from that of this modern photograph
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Nineveh and Kuyunjik
Nineveh is an ancient Assyrian city near Mosul in northern Iraq; Kuyunjik is one of its archaeological mounds
Kuyunjik mound at Nineveh in northern Iraq, in an April 1990 photograph taken near the northwestern corner of the city wall. A dated archival view of the site at that time; the photographer’s original annotation remains in the image
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Susa, ancient Shush
Susa is an archaeological city at Shush in southwestern present-day Iran
Remains of the Apadana hall of Darius’s palace at Susa, at Shush in southwestern Iran, 18 April 2019. The column bases and archaeological remains appear in the foreground
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Babylon
Babylon is an ancient city in central present-day Iraq, south of Baghdad
The site of Babylon in Iraq, in a photograph dated 2009 on its source page. It includes buildings reconstructed in modern times over the archaeological site, alongside the surrounding land
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Iran
Iran is the modern country containing Shush, ancient Susa
Ruins of Darius’s palace at Persepolis in southwestern Iran, 24 September 2016. They belong to the Achaemenid period; construction of the site’s complex began around 518 BCE. This is one ancient Iranian site, distinct from Susa mentioned in the definition
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Egypt
Egypt lies mainly in northeastern Africa and includes the Sinai Peninsula in Asia
The Nile at Aswan in southern Egypt, 23 May 2007. A modern view of the river, its banks and sailing boats, illustrating part of the Nile Valley’s geographical setting
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Iraq
Iraq is a modern country encompassing much of ancient Mesopotamia
The Tigris in Baghdad, Iraq, on the evening of 29 December 2021. A modern river and city view illustrating the present geographical setting of Mesopotamia
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Turkey
Turkey is a modern country including Anatolia and territory in southeastern Europe
Ortaköy Mosque and the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, June 2008. A modern view of the strait and the bridge joining the city’s European and Asian shores
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Anatolia
Anatolia is the region occupying the Asian part of present-day Turkey
Aktepe Hill near Göreme in Cappadocia, central Anatolia in present-day Turkey, 31 July 2009. A landscape photograph, not a representation of one particular ancient kingdom or people
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Sinai: peninsula and biblical mountain
Sinai is a peninsula in eastern Egypt; in the Torah the name also denotes the mountain of revelation to Moses
A view of the Sinai desert in Egypt, 22 November 2008. It shows the peninsula’s landscape without identifying the mountain meant by the biblical narratives
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Illustration
Site
Eden: The Setting of Genesis’s Garden
The place in which the garden of Genesis 2–3 is planted; the story describes rivers, trees and a human test, while its archaeological location and name’s derivation remain unsettled.
Modern conceptual illustration combining a Dilmun-like quay, fresh water and a garden to frame the comparison; neither an archaeological reconstruction nor a location of Eden. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Site
Dilmun: Ancient Gulf Land and Literary Setting
An ancient Gulf trading region linked archaeologically to Bahrain and also a Sumerian literary setting whose mythical scenes are not all historical descriptions.
Modern conceptual illustration combining a Dilmun-like quay, fresh water and a garden to frame the comparison; neither an archaeological reconstruction nor a location of Eden. © IL Archive, CC0
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