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Converting Israel Coordinates to Use in Google Earth

(Post by A.D. Riddle)

Oftentimes, while researching archaeological sites and/or biblical places, I come across things like this:

map reference 193.142
M.R. 219156
1972 1954

These are grid coordinates for sites. One encounters them in key works such as The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sites in the Holy Land (5 vols.), Anchor Bible Dictionary, or the volumes from the archaeological survey of Israel. I want to locate these sites in Google Earth, but how do I convert them? (This subject came to mind while reading Chris McKinny’s post on Shaaraim [see here].)

There are two coordinate systems for Israel, the Old Israeli Grid and the New Israeli Grid. Sometimes these are abbreviated OIG or NIG, but typically no indication is given as to which coordinate system is being used. (To read more about OIG, see this page, and for NIG this page.) I have found that most coordinates are according to OIG, even in newer publications. I am going to assume we are using OIG. (If not, hopefully the results are so wrong that one can tell right away that they are not OIG. This point highlights the fact that you need already to have some kind of rough idea where the right location is so that you can verify the results.)

The coordinates should have an even number of digits. Sometimes they are divided in half by a space, period, or slash, but other times there is nothing separating the string of digits.

If you are given six digits, then the first three digits give one coordinate and the second three digits give the other coordinate. If you are given eight digits, then the first four are one coordinate and the second four are the other. And so on.

The first coordinate gives the easting position (think longitude or x-axis), and the second coordinate gives the northing position (think latitude or y-axis). In other words, the coordinates give you lon/lat. This is the opposite order we normally use of lat/lon for geographic coordinates.

The first (easting, x) coordinate is actually always six digits. If you are only given three digits, then you need to append three zeros to the right side. If you are given four digits, then append two zeros to the right side.

The second coordinate, on the other hand, can be six or seven digits, and is a little more complicated. For the second (northing, y) coordinate, if you are given three digits, then you have to append a “1” to the left side and three zeros to the right side.

With these expanded coordinates, you can now make the conversion using a fantastic website named “The World Coordinate Converter.” (Thanks to Shawn French for finding this gem.) In the top right, from the first dropdown list, scroll down to Israel and select Israel 1923. This is the Old Israeli Grid.

Then, paste the coordinates into the fields. Below this in the second dropdown list, you will need to select “WGS 84/Pseudo-Mercator.” It is found under *World, which is the first group of reference systems. This is the datum used by Google Earth. Finally, click Convert and voila! you have coordinates that you can copy/paste into Google Earth/Maps.

Here are three examples.

Khirbet Jazzir

  1. Anchor Bible Dictionary gives the coordinates 219156 for Khirbet Jazzir. This is thought to be the most likely site for the Levitical city Jazer.
  2. The easting (longitude, x-axis) coordinate is 219. We need to add three zeros to make this a six digit number, namely 219000.
  3. The northing (latitude, y-axis) coordinate is 156. We need to add a “1” to the left and three zeros to the right to get 1156000.
  4. Now go to “The World Coordinate Converter,” select Israel 1923, and paste in the expanded coordinates in the same order they were given to us, 219000, 1156000. Make sure you are converting to “WGS 84/Pseudo-Mercator” and click the Convert button.
  5. The converter generates the following lat/lon coordinates that I can then paste right into Google Earth: 31.996063441518004, 35.728730514891744. Make sure lat is first, and lon is second.

Tell el-Maṣfā

  1. In an article by Israel Finkelstein, Ido Koch, and Oded Lipschits, entitled “The Biblical Gilead: Observations on Identifications, Geographic Divisions and Territorial History,” it is proposed that Mizpah of Gilead be identified with Tell el-Maṣfā.
  2. The coordinates given are 227193.
  3. This gets expanded to 227000, 1193000.
  4. The convertor returns 32.32932657748971, 35.815608335148326 which can be used in Google to locate the site. (We note that these coordinates do not correspond to the hill that they have marked on the p. 143 photograph. It looks to me like their arrow needs to be moved about 1 inch to the left.)

Karm er-Ras

Finally, I was recently asked to make a map that shows Karm er-Ras in Galilee. The Hadashot Arkheologiyot article for this site gives very precise coordinates for each excavation area, both NIG and OIG. The OIG coordinates for Area A are 181580/239335. These are already six digits, so all I need to do is paste them into “The World Coordinate Converter” to get 32.74860752349965, 35.33387296365357.

Additional Notes

The OIG and NIG coordinates are measured in meters. If you are given three digit coordinates, then the accuracy could be off by about half a kilometer. If you are given all six digits, then your accuracy is sub-meter.

If the “The World Coordinate Converter” fails to load the Converter, you can still use the website to get the information you want. Once you select Israel 1923 and paste in your coordinates, a placemark will appear on the map with an info-window. The lat/lon coordinates that you can use in Google Earth appear within this info-window.

For batch conversions, you can supposedly import a CSV into Eye4Software Coordinate Calculator 3.2 (Windows only).  I have not successfully completed a batch conversion, but the software claims it can do so.

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15 thoughts on “Converting Israel Coordinates to Use in Google Earth

  1. This is a very helpful post, A.D. I expect that many will reference it for years to come as they make the conversion.

    One small note: if any readers try to use the coordinates for Khirbet Jazzir given in the Anchor Bible Dictionary, they'll end up in some guy's backyard. He is quite hospitable and will prepare tea for you, but to find Jazzir you'll have to go about a mile northeast. In Google, the coordinates are 32° 0'17.11"N, 35°44'20.65"E.

  2. A.D., Very helpful post. This would have saved a ton(!) of time. Another option (which I have used) is to find the location on AmudAnun.co.il (whether OIG or NIG) and then simply match that location on Google Earth or Google Maps with a point.

  3. Todd,
    Thanks for pointing out that the converted coordinates are only as accurate as the original coordinates. It is hard to locate sites like this, where you cannot visually identify it in Google Earth, without going there in person.

    Chris,
    I did something similar using the Israel Hiking Maps when I had to locate some sites in the Negev. The big advantage of the Israel Maps and AmudAnun is that you can see, for example, on what side of a hill/town/stream the site is located (assuming the site is marked)—it allows you to placemark a site more precisely. The disadvantage is I do not see a way to type in coordinates into AmudAnun; it looks like you have to find the site by using the graticule, which seems difficult to do in a web interface (easier to do with a sheet map). And in addition, two of the three sites I used as examples are in Jordan, so the Israel Maps and AmudAnun do not help.

    If you can visually locate the site in Google Earth, then all problems are solved.

    1. Thanks for your 14 April 2015 post. A friend and I were able to take your instructions and successfully enter Israel coordinates into the World Coordinate Converter and successfully plot the map reference for Jericho from Trent Butler’s Word Commentary on Joshua Vol 7B, page 140. Our only question at this point is what map listing do these map reference numbers refer to? Where to do we go to find the map. We’ve everywhere and, so far, can’t find anything that tells us about the map series. Hope you can still read this. Thanks Craig Baugh

      1. These coordinates do not correspond to any one specific map or map set. It is a coordinate system used for referencing this part of the world and thus appears on many different maps. I believe you will find this coordinate system used with the British Mandate maps as well as with modern Israel hiking maps and other maps produced by Survey of Israel.

        I hope that helps.
        A.D.

  4. I can echo the compliments from Todd & Chris: I encountered this same problem while researching obscure sites where LMLK handles were found, & was baffled/frustrated by the locations mentioned in excavation reports.

  5. Among your many informative blogs, is there a way to have a permanent link to this particular article?
    thanks
    Carl

  6. Great article. I've done my best to follow your instructions in order to find the Gezer boundary inscription #8. According to this article, the grid coordinates for the inscription are 144159/ 138979, but when I plug those in to The World Coordinate Converter, I don't see any results. If you can show me what I'm missing, I would appreciate it! Thanks.

  7. Wayne, both coordinates already have six digits, so do not add any zeros to the end. The X coordinate will be 144159. You still need to add a 1 to the left of the Y coordinate so it will be 1138979. Make sure the input coordinate system is "Israel 1923" and the output coordinate system is "*GPS (WGS84)," which is the very first option on the list. See if that works.

  8. Have any of you encountered a system in this format for archeological sites in Israel?

    ____13-12/42/3
    ____14-10/43/7
    ____15-12/13/12
    104-15-12/40/1
    307-16-11/52/1
    105-16-12/41/3

    That's how Andy Vaughn refers to them in surveys conducted by Amit & Ofer some decades ago. So frustrating! Probably easy if I had the original Hebrew publications & could read them, but they seem to be useless in modern electronic maps.

  9. G.M.,

    I am not familiar with those numbers as a map coordinate system. I am looking at Vaughn’s Theology, History, and Archaeology in the Chronicler's Account of Hezekiah (1999), page 196, which appears to be the page from where you got some of those numbers you list. In footnote 79, Vaughn calls “grid point” the number 15-12/13/12 and he calls “site no.” the numbers 15105 12350. It appears to me that 15105 12350 are the actual map coordinates and indeed, when I convert them, they land me at a spot which corresponds with the rest of description in the footnote, i.e. “approximately 8 km east Tel Azekah.” It leads me to wonder if “site no.” and “grid point” have gotten mixed up, and thus 15-12/13/12 is the survey site number and the map grid coordinates are 15105 12350. If I am correct, then for several sites, Vaughn gives only the survey site number from Amit and no grid coordinates, which will make them harder to locate.

    Hope that helps.

    A.D.

  10. Excellent A.D.! Your interpretation makes sense, because there are other typos where Vaughn swaps a journal volume number with its page number. Maybe that's what happens when one part of your notes are written right-left in Hebrew, & the other part is left-right in English! I'm grateful for every bit of help I can get to improve the info for future researchers, so again, many thanks!

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