ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

An empire is all the land areas controlled by any kind of government. If you will look at the maps of the British in the 1700's and 1800's you will see their empire maps include India, parts of China .. even the America's

A classic example is people who live in America's S.W. At one time in history they were Mexicans by nationality, then Texans then Americans.
Today we call empires, nations. There is no difference. As the political power continue to take control of more land areas, subjected the people to their taxes and took their natural resources, that land area became part of the empire. Israel was part of 4 empires.

Inside the white lines are lands that were part of the Assyrian Empire. This map was a quickie I created just to show the present day nations that was part of the Assyrian Empire. Centuries later when the Romans took control of the land area, parts of the Assyrian Empire were then part of the Roman Empire.
The Hittite empire became the Roman Empire then the Ottoman Empire.
An empire is simply a land area and the people of that land area controlled by a political power. Simply look at the ancient maps of the 4 empires of the middle east and see the maps of those empires include the very same places of the other empires.
A capital is not the empire.. but ever inch of land and every people it controls is the sum of that empire. Washington D.C. Is not the empire/nation, it is just the capital of the nation. A nation/empire is the sum of all the land/people controlled by a specific government. Oh yes Israel was part of Babylon then as Hawaii is now part of the United States.

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A cluster of maps of bible/Egyptian empires. Copy and use freely. http://picasaweb.google.com/arabisraelites/Maps#

These images were created just the right size to complete fit in a Google Blog. If you have a better version you want to share.. scribesofegypt@gmail.com 

zendz