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185 morial this land route led up the Euphrates River to the major way station of Harran in the Balikh River region. From there the trav- eler had the choice of either to continue south down the Mediterra- nean coast—the road later called by the Romans Via Maris ("The Sea Way")—or to proceed on the east side of the Jordan, along the equally famous King's Highway. The former was the shortest route to Egypt; the latter could lead to the Gulf of Eilat, the Red Sea, Arabia, and Africa, as well as into the Sinai peninsula; it could also lead to the western side of the Jordan via several suitable crossing points. It was the route over which the African gold was brought. The most vital of these, the one that led directly to Mission Con- trol Center in Jerusalem, was the crossing point at Jericho. It was there that the Israelites crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land. It was there, we suggest, that millennia earlier the Anunnaki estab- lished a town to guard the crossing point and to supply the travelers with provisions for the continued journey. Until man made Jericho his home, it was an outpost of the gods. Would the Anunnaki have built a settlement only on the west side of the Jordan, leaving the more vital eastern side, where the King's Highway ran, unprotected? It stands to reason that a settle- ment should have existed on the opposite, eastern side of the Jor- dan, too. Though little known outside of archaeological circles, such a place has indeed been found; and what was discovered there is even more astounding than what had been uncovered at Jericho. The puzzling place with astounding remains was first unearthed in 1929 by an archaeological mission organized by the Vatican's Pontifical Biblical Institute. The archaeologists, led by Alexis Mallon, were surprised by the high level of civilization found there. Even the oldest level of habitation (circa 7500 B.C.) was paved with bricks, and though the period of settlement stretched from the end of the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, the archaeolo- gists were amazed to find that the same civilization revealed itself at all levels. The place is named after the mound where it was found—Tell Ghassul; its ancient name is not known. Together with several sat- ellite settlements, it clearly controlled the vital crossover point and the road leading to it—a road still followed to this day to a crossing point nowadays called the Allenby Bridge (Fig. 57). The strategic location of Tell Ghassul had been noted by the archaeologists when they began to dig up its remains: "From atop the mound, one has an interesting all-around view: the Jordan on the west as a dark Peace on Earth