Gilgal was next to the Jordan River, a few kilometres east of Jericho. This was a very strategic location with water providing protection from one side and open plains preventing an attack from the other. It also had an abundant fresh water supply and it seemed to serve as Israel’s base of operations (Joshua 10:15, Joshua 10:43; Joshua 14:6).1
19 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.