Way of the Patriarchs
transportation route in ancient Israel
The Road of the Patriarchs or Way of the Patriarchs (Hebrew: דֶּרֶךְ הֲאָבוֹת Derech haʾAvot Lit. Way (of) the Fathers) is an ancient north–south route traversing the land of Israel and the region of Palestine. The modern Highway 60 (Israel-Palestine) follows roughly the route of the Way of the Patriarchs. The name is used by biblical scholars because of mentions in biblical narratives that it was frequently travelled by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
It is also called the Hill Road or the Ridge Route because it follows the watershed ridge line of the Samarian and Judaean Mountains. It runs from Megiddo and Hazor south to Beersheba by way of Shechem, Bethel, Jerusalem, Ephrath and Hebron. Unlike the Via Maris and the King's Highway which were international roads crossing the territories of many peoples, the Ridge Route was wholly within the territory of ancient Israel.
Modern equivalent
The modern Highway 60 follows roughly the route of the Way of the Patriarchs (without the more recent bypasses), passing through Afula, Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Halhul, Hebron and Dhahiriya.
Archaeological findings
Ritual baths
Way stations were discovered along the route between Beersheba and Jerusalem from the time of the ancient Temple and later during the Hellenistic and Roman eras. Ritual baths (mikvaot, Hebrew: מקוואות) served pilgrims during their journey.
The public source identifies “Way of the Patriarchs” as transportation route in ancient Israel. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Patriarchs, transportation and route.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q259222. Authority coordinates are 32.047, 35.289. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Way of the Patriarchs” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.