Canaan, a region central to Palestine, was originally inhabited by the Canaanites. References to "Canaan" and "Canaanite" appear in cuneiform, Egyptian, and Phoenician writings from around the 15th century BCE, as well as in the Old Testament. The term can refer to all of Palestine and Syria, land west of the Jordan River, or a strip of coastal land from Acre (ʿAkko) southward.
