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Conquest of land in the promised land. >> reporter: the bible tells us that before his death on mount nebo, with guidance from god, moses chose a man named joshua to lead the israelites on the last leg of their journey. >> and so we have this real transition, a handing over of power from one generation to the next, where moses and his generation have been wandering it's the story of wandering for 40 years, joshua's more action-packed. this is where they come on in and they take over. ♪ fought the battle of jericho >> reporter: as told in the book of joshua the conquest of canaan has all the ...

Until an unexpected patch of green comes into view, signaling our arrival into the biblical city of palms, jericho. >> jericho's one of the most interesting cities in the ancient near east. there's a spring there that's still gushing out. hundreds of gallons of water per minute. it's always been a beautiful place to live. this oasis in what is now the middle of the desert. >> reporter: it's believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. traces of 23 distinct civilizations have been found in a small archaeological park on the outskirts of town. but what draws pilgrims from ...

Believe that this was the promised land that moses tried for so long to reach but never did. until an unexpected patch of green comes into view, signaling our arrival into the biblical city of palms, jericho. >> jericho's one of the most interesting cities in the ancient near east. there's a spring there that's still gushing out. hundreds of gallons of water per minute. it's always been a beautiful place to live. this oasis in what is now the middle of the desert. >> reporter: it's believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. traces of 23 distinct civilizations have been...

Believe? what do we actually think happened? >> reporter: the archaeology does lend some support to the less dramatic and gentler account. >> of all the years when jericho was inhabited, the one period where we want it to be inhabited so joshua can attack it, there's nobody living there. it's empty. there's no wall for joshua to knock down. >> to put it bluntly, the book of joshua is almost all fictitious. >> yes, there are some battles. yes, there's some killing. but overall, they're coming in and they're living side by side with some of the canaanites. >> this sounds radical, but when i talk...

A few days after we visited jericho our team was invited to the graduation ceremony for jonathan friedland and his elite unit of the israeli defense force cadets. >> just like joshua and his troops came to israel and had their battles here and were able to live here, i'm just continuing it just like my brother did it and my father did it and my grandfather did it. and that goes back all the way to the bible days. [ speaking foreign language ]. >> reporter: they had marched 175 kilometers overnight, a journey that ended here, in the disputed golan heights along the syrian border. the cadets' fa...