history of Palestine

The region of Palestine is part of the Levant, a land bridge between Africa and Eurasia that has traditionally served as the "crossroads of Western Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Northeast Africa". Lying to the west of the Jordan Rift Valley, Palestine is, in tectonic terms, located in the "northwest of the Arabian Plate".

A crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics, Palestine was among the earliest regions to see human habitation, agricultural communities and civilization. In the Bronze Age, the Canaanites established city-states influenced by surrounding civilizations, among them Egypt, which ruled the area in the Late Bronze Age. During the Iron Age, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, emerged in the interior, while kingdoms belonging to Philistia and Phoenicia ruled the Palestinian coast. The Assyrians conquered the region in the 8th century BCE, then the Babylonians c. 601 BCE, followed by the Persian Achaemenid Empire that conquered the Babylonian Empire in 539 BCE. Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in the late 330s BCE, intensifying Hellenizing influences.