Numbers 13:17

And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, to get all the information possible regarding the land, the products, the cities, the industries, the inhabitants, and whatever other matters they might find interesting, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain; they were to begin their work in the southern district of Canaan, which represented the stage of transition from the state of wilderness to that of a highly cultivated country, and were then to make their way northward into the more mountainous districts;