Courtesy Adam Zertal

The Promised Land probably looked rather unpromising in these desert fringes of the territory of Manasseh. Now, as in the ancient past, villages like Raba, at center, use the land mostly for grazing. Adam Zertal, who is conducting an ongoing archaeological survey of the hill country of Manasseh, has uncovered substantial evidence that this area was the place where the Israelites first entered Canaan, perhaps from east of the Jordan River.