ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

History of the Southern Levant

Hi there kiddo! Do you know where the Southern Levant is? It's a place on Earth that includes parts of modern-day Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria! The people who lived there a long time ago were called Canaanites, and they spoke a language that is now extinct.

A long, long time ago, the Southern Levant was just a natural area with lots of hills and valleys. People began settling there about 10,000 years ago, and they started farming and tending animals. As time went on, these settlements grew into cities, with buildings, markets, and temples. The people who lived in this area had many different beliefs and ways of life, and they traded with each other and with people from other parts of the world.

Over the centuries, many different empires and groups of people ruled the Southern Levant. One of the most famous of these was the ancient Egyptians, who took control of the region around 1500 BCE. After that, the region was ruled by various groups including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. These empires left their mark on the Southern Levant through their architecture, art, and even the language that the people spoke.

In more recent times, the Southern Levant has been the site of many conflicts between different groups of people, including wars for control of the land and the establishment of the modern state of Israel. Today, the Southern Levant is a diverse region with many different cultures and languages, and people still gather there to trade and share ideas, just like they have for thousands of years.