Via Maris is the modern name for an ancient trade route, dating from the early Bronze Age, linking Egypt with the northern empires of Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia — modern day Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. Its earlier name was "Way of the Philistines", a reference to a passageway through the Philistine Plain. At this point the Way branches into two Ways — one along the Mediterranean coast, through Megiddo, and the other following an inland route through the Jezreel Valley, the Sea of Galilee and Dan. There is also a reference to the Via Maris ("the way of the sea") in Isaiah 9:1.