Google Earth is a fantastic tool that combines high-resolution aerial imagery with a “flying” engine so that users can travel anywhere in the world in seconds.  The problem is that most people don’t know where they’re going.  Jay Baggett is on the way to solving this problem for students and teachers of the Bible.  His new website, Land of the Bible, features more than a dozen video tours through the 3-D landscape of Israel and Jordan.

After you get an introduction on the home page, you can see a list of the flights in the left sidebar. 

You’ll notice that Jay has plans to create many more in the future.  If you want a short tour, you can start with “David & Goliath,” which begins David’s hometown in Bethlehem and brings you down to the Elah Valley and the stage for the famous battle.  As the video proceeds, the “tour notes” on the right make it clear what you are seeing and why it is important.

Fly-over tour at landofthebible.com

For a longer tour, click “From Dan to Beersheba.”  This is a great way to get a feel for the whole land and how one site is related to another.  If you want to “pick up the pace,” you can always click the “fast-forward” button; each click doubles the speed of the video.

Most of the tours are located in the “Pilgrim’s tour of Israel and Jordan.”  Since most visitors see similar sites on the same basic route, this tour will be useful to many tourists even if they were not on Jay’s trip last year.

The videos require a Google Earth plug-in and they do not seem to work in Firefox.  This is a great tool and I look forward to seeing the new fly-overs as Jay finishes them.