The ancient Near East had no railroads, no highways in the modern sense, but it had something just as reliable: well-worn trade roads that had been in use for thousands of years, maintained by commerce, armies, and empire. Three routes above all dominated the geography of the biblical world, and understanding them unlocks the logic of almost every military campaign and migration in the Old Testament.
The Via Maris — "the Way of the Sea" — ran along the Mediterranean coastal plain from Egypt north through Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Joppa, then cut inland through the Jezreel Valley via the crucial pass at Megiddo, before continuing north through Syria toward Mesopotamia. This was the fastest, most direct route between Egypt and the north, and it was the road over which armies marched for millennia. Isaiah 9:1 calls it "the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations" — and Matthew 4:15 applies that prophecy to Jesus's ministry in Galilee, noting that He was literally fulfilling Scripture by teaching along this ancient road.
The King's Highway ran south to north through the Transjordan plateau — the high desert east of the Jordan River — connecting the Gulf of Aqaba and Arabia in the south to Damascus in the north. It was along the King's Highway that Israel asked to pass when traveling from Kadesh-Barnea toward Canaan (Numbers 20:17) — and Edom refused to let them through. The road was used by Joseph's brothers when they sold him to the Ishmaelite traders heading to Egypt (Genesis 37:25), and by the Queen of Sheba's caravan when she visited Solomon (1 Kings 10:1–2).
The Fertile Crescent route curved north from Mesopotamia through the Syrian steppe to Canaan, following the arc of arable land. This was the road Abraham walked from Ur to Haran, and from Haran south to Canaan. It was the route of armies, merchants, and migrants for five thousand years — and the road along which the ideas, goods, languages, and gods of the ancient world flowed in both directions. Canaan's position at the intersection of all three routes explains why it was perpetually contested, perpetually occupied, and perpetually the center of world history.