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Casual English Bible

By Stephen M. Miller

Bible Maps Search Engine

Maps related to Susa

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About the Casual English Bible Maps..

Bible maps make the Bible clearer

The Casual English Bible® maps tell Bible stories in a captivating way that engages even people who have never read the Bible. Lavishly detailed maps only make the stories of Jesus and others more compelling and easier to picture and to understand.

These 3D-style maps of Bible lands are created from blended high resolution satellite images, matched to precise elevation data from international space agencies.

How to search for maps

—Type “Galilee” into the Casual English Bible’s map search engine, below. Instantly, you’ll see dozens of beautiful maps…many in 3D style. Each one tracks with a different Bible story. These aren’t generic maps with a hundred place names.
—Type “Samson” into the Bible map search engine. You’ll see the tiny village where he lived in the Judean foothills below Jerusalem.
—Type “Corinthians” and you’ll see a gallery full of maps associated with Paul’s letters of 1, 2 Corinthians, to the church in Corinth, Greece.

3D sense of the lay of the land

Get a feel for the lay of the land:

—Ararat Mountains, where Noah’s boat ran aground. The Bible doesn’t say it was Mount Ararat.
—Judean hills where Joshua and the Israelites found most of their battles for the Promised Land. They avoided the plains, where their enemies with armored chariots had the advantage over Israel’s foot soldiers.
—Jesus’ 20-mile climb from Jericho and the Jordan River Valley upward half a mile high, to the crest of the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem.
—One surprise for some readers is the Jesus Triangle, a plug of ground between three cities. It’s where Jesus spent most of his ministry time. A person can walk that entire triangle in a single day. Type “Jesus triangle” to see it.

Jews return home from the Exile

Routes Jews took to return home from the Exile in Babylon

Jews return home from the Exile

Bible Book: Ezra, Nehemiah Type: Maps Location: Aleppo, Babylon, Baghdad, Damascus, Euphrates River, Fertile Crescent, Hamath, Haran, Jerusalem, Nippur, Susa, Tigris River, Ur Era: Back from exile

Jews return home from the Exile

Zerubbabel and Sheshbazzar, prince of Judah, lead 50,000 Jews home, beginning in 538 BC. With a Persian military escort, they took a longer and safer route, following water sources.

Almost a century after the first Jews returned to Israel, Ezra led a group. Ezra took the shorter route, with a long walk through a dangerous part of the Arabian Desert.

Nehemiah came last and furthest, from Persia’s capital of Susa. He repaired Jerusalem’s walls.

Jews return home from the Exile
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Persian Empire Map

map of persian empire

Persian Empire Map

Bible Book: Esther Type: Maps Location: ACHAEMENID DYNASTY, Persian Empire, Persian Gulf, Persian warrior, Queen Esther, Susa Era: Back from exile, Heroes, kings
Persian Empire map in the time of King Xerxes and Queen Esther, when the ACHAEMENID DYNASTY ruled the empire, 522 BC-486 BC. The writer of the Bible Book of Esther uses the Hebrew version of Xerxes’ name: Ahasuerus. It’s a bit like the difference between the English name of “Stephen” showing up in Spanish as “Esteban.” Xerxes the Great reigned from 486 BC until his top bodyguard assassinated him in 465 BC. He’s the king perhaps best known for defeating King Leonidas of Sparta at the Battle of Thermopylae and then destroying Athens and taking control of mainland Greece. Xerxes later left and took his army home. But many scholars say this Xerxes is fictional—a weak-minded caricature of the powerful ruler. Media was a nation of people known as the Medes. They united with the Persians to defeat the Babylonian Empire. They lived in what is now northern Iran, just south of the Caspian Sea. Mount Ararat lies within this region. That’s where a Bible writer says Noah’s boat ran aground after the Great Flood (Genesis 8:4) When Xerxes through a seven-day drinking party for his leaders, Queen Vashti, his wife before Esther, through a party for the wives. Women of nobility didn’t typically go to drinking parties with the men. Dancing ladies went there as entertainment. So, it would make sense for the queen to host the wives of the men. There’s no known mention of Queen Vashti in ancient Persian history outside of the Bible. That’s one of several reasons some scholars say this story is fictional and intended to teach readers a lesson about courage and justice and resilience of the Jewish people. The king ordered his wife to come to the party, which she refused. The king’s wife was reserved for the king’s eyes only—for no other man. So, what self-respecting queen would put herself on display as a trophy wife in a room full of men on a seven-day drunk? She tried to protect her honor and possibly the honor of her husband, who was too drunk to realize that he was embarrassing himself. On the advice of his legal experts, he banned Vashti from ever coming to see him again. Then he went on a hunt for a beautiful wife. His people found Esther, a young Jew.
Map of Esther's Persian Empire
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