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To: JeffAtlanta; Asphalt
I've done a bit more research on Egypt. The Nile Delta represents 63 percent of the habitable land in Egypt and occupies 80,000 square kilometers, which gives us an area of about 127,000 square kilometers of habitable land between the First Cataract and the Mediterranean. There are also several oases in the desert, which taken together might bring the habitable areas to 150,000 square kilometers.

Now, taking the population density figure of 20 per square kilometer gives us a population of 3 million in classical times. This is a pretty good sized population for any country of that period or even up through the Middle Ages.

Anyway, as can be seen if 2 million folks suddenly uprooted and high-tailed it to Canaan, the social and economic upheaval would be greater than even what I postulated earlier as this is two-thirds of the population.

And, it gets worse.

The land of Canaan (the land of milk and honey) is roughly the size of modern Israel with all the territory captured in the 1967 wars. This entire area is only about 22,000 kilometers in size and is roughly about as productive (we'll be nice) as the Nile valley. This means that at classical levels of agriculture it could support maybe a half million people. The Israelites would have conquered the place and promptly starved to death as their supply of manna had been cut off once they left the desert (notice, I'm giving Scripture the benefit of the doubt here).

538 posted on 08/02/2005 11:56:02 AM PDT by Junior (Just because the voices in your head tell you to do things doesn't mean you have to listen to them)
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To: Junior

you assume there were just as many Israelites after fourty years. Considering they were in the desert. And considering all the plagues (ground opened up, etc.) I would say a good half of them if not more could easily have died.


549 posted on 08/02/2005 12:01:12 PM PDT by Asphalt (Join my NFL ping list! FReepmail me| The best things in life aren't things)
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