You're listening to a special archive presentation of TED Talks audio.

This talk features writer Malcolm Gladwell recorded live at TED Salon, NY 2013.

We're featuring this talk today as part of a special selection themed around journeys.

So I wanted to tell a story that that really obsessed me when I was writing my new book.

And it's a story of something that happened 3,000 years ago when the Kingdom of Israel was in its infancy.

It takes place in an area called the Shafala in what is now Israel.

And the reason the story upsets me is that I thought I understood it,

and then I went back over it and I realized that I didn't understand it at all.

Ancient Palestine had a, along its eastern border.

There's a mountain range, still same as true of Israel today, and in the mountain range

are all of the ancient cities of that region.

So Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron.

And then there's a coastal plain, right, along the Mediterranean, where

Tel Aviv is now. And connecting the mountain range with the coastal plain is an area called the

Sheffala, which is a series of valleys and ridges that run east to west. And you can follow

the sheffala, go through the Sheffala to get from the coastal plain to the mountains.

And the shuffle, if you've been to Israel, you'll know it's just about the most beautiful part of Israel.

It's gorgeous with forests of oak and wheat fields and vineyards.

But more importantly, though, in the history of that region, it's had a real strategic function.

And that is, it is the means by which hostile armies on the coastal plain find their way,

get up into the mountains and threaten those living in the mountains.

And 3,000 years ago, that's exactly what happens.

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