Most of what is known about the ancient history of Israel is sourced from the Hebrew Bible.

Israel can be traced back to the biblical figure Abraham, who is deemed the father of Judaism (through his son Isaac) and a patriarch of Islam (through his son Ishmael).

The descendants of Abraham were thought to be enslaved by Egyptians for hundreds of years before they settled in Canaan (approximately in modern-day Israel).

Around 1000 BCE, King David ruled the region. His son, Solomon, built the First Temple (Solomon’s Temple) in ancient Jerusalem around 957 BCE.

In about 931 BCE, the region was divided into two kingdoms, namely, Israel in the north and Judah in the south.

Around 722 BCE, the kingdom of Israel was invaded and destroyed by the Assyrians.

In the sixth century BCE, Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians, who took control of Judah. The First Temple was destroyed and the Jews were expelled to Babylon.

In 538 BCE, the Babylonians were conquered by the Achaemenid Empire whose emperor Cyrus allowed the Jews to go back to Judah, where they rebuilt Solomon’s Temple (Second Temple).

In 70 CE, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple marking the end of the first Jewish-Roman War. The gold and materials looted from the Second Temple is thought to have contributed towards the building of the Roman Colosseum.

Following the Bar Khokba Revolt of 132-136 AD, Roman Emperor Hadrian expelled all Jews from Jerusalem, which had from time to time been at the center of anti-Roman revolts.

Hadrian went a step further by eliminating any traces of Jewish presence in the province renaming it from Judea to Syria Palaestina.

By destroying the association of Jews with Judea and forbidding the practice of the Jewish faith, Hadrian aimed to root out a nation that had inflicted heavy casualties on the Roman Empire.

For the next many centuries, the region of Israel was conquered and ruled by many groups such as the Persians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Fatimids, Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, Egyptians, Mamluks and finally the Ottoman