What route would 1st century BCE travellers have taken from Alexandria to Jerusalem?

Question

The Babylonian Talmud recounts a story in which a sage, Yehoshua ben Perachaiah, and one of his students travel from Alexandria, Egypt to Jerusalem (Sotah 47a, Sanhedrin 107b). The story takes place during the time of King Alexander Jannaeus, circa the beginning of the first half of the 1st century BCE. I was wondering what route or routes would have been most plausible for them to have taken?

Answer 1

There were two great trade routes in the Ancient Near East, known today as the King's Highway and the Via Maris. The former cuts across the Sinai to Aqaba before turning north to Damascus, while the latter follows the coastal plains from Egypt to Antioch before linking up with the King's Highway.

Jerusalem did not lie directly on either international route, but the city is served by several regional east-west paths that linked into the greater network. Most likely, an overland travellers from Alexandria would have followed the Via Maris up to Gaza or Jaffa, where the Lachish Road and the Bethoron Ascent, respectively, leads to Jerusalem.

Alternatively, travellers could take a ship from Alexandria to Gaza or Jaffa, then made the last leg of the trip to Jerusalem as above. All three were ports that conducted significant maritime trade.

Less plausibly, a traveller could take the King's Highway to Rabbah, then follow the Red Descent to Jerusalem.

^{(Wikipedia map of the ancient trade routes)}