Ancient Canaan's location made it a cultural crossroads of the ancient world. By land, it connected Asia and Africa and two great empires, both eager to expand. To the east lay Assyria and Babylonia and to the west Egypt. Its seaports opened onto the two most important waterways of that time: the Mediterranean and the Red Seas. The Israelites settled in Canaan, which lay between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. According to the Hebrew Bible, Canaan was the land God had promised to the Israelites.