Megiddo, 12km/7.5mi west of Afula and 32km/20mi southeast of Haifa, was an important stronghold in ancient times and, thanks to its strategic situation, retained its military importance into the 20th century. The old road from Egypt to Syria avoided Cape Carmel, leaving the coast near Caesarea and bearing northeast to run through the Iron valley into the Jezreel plain. Megiddo, situated at the mouth of the valley, where the road divides into a western branch heading for Tyre and Sidon and an eastern branch making for Damascus and Mesopotamia, controlled these important trade and military routes.
History
Excavation of the tell of Megiddo began in 1903-05 with the work of the German Palestine Society, when Schumacher cut the deep, wide trench on the east side which bears his name. Between 1925 and 1939 the site was systematically investigated by the Chicago Oriental Institute, and in 1960 Yigael Yadin began the excavations which established the chronology of the site.
This work showed that after a period of occupation in the Neolithic era there was a Canaanite settlement here in the fourth millennium B.C. which continued in existence until the Israelite occupation of the Promised Land. From this period date a Chalcolithic shrine and another one nearby with a large circular altar. After a battle in 1479 B.C. in which Pharaoh Tuthmosis III gained control of the pass during his advance to the Euphrates the town was under Egyptian influence. In the Tell el-Amarna archives (14th century B.C.) were found letters from the Egyptian governor Biridja asking for military reinforcements against the Habiru (Hebrews?). In the 13th century B.C. Joshua, after his triumph over the king of Hazor, also defeated the king of Megiddo (Joshua 12,21); but the Israelites held the town only for a short time, for in the 12th century the Philistines, thrusting inland from the coast, conquered Megiddo and the whole of the Jezreel plain as far as Beth-shean.
A new phase began around 1000 B.C., however, when David defeated the Philistines. In the 10th century Solomon made Megiddo the chief town of the fifth administrative region of Israel, extending as far as Beth-shean, with Baana son of Ahilud as its governor (1 Kings 4,12). Yigael Yadin's excavations brought to light, to the east of the main gate, a Northern Palace dating from this period, probably the royal residence, and one of the casemate walls characteristic of Solomon's time, like those at Hazor and Gezer, as well as the formidable North Gate. On the south side of the site were the palace of the governor, Baana, and an administrative building. "This was not a mere fortress but a metropolis with imposing buildings designed for ceremonial purposes" (Yadin). The Solomonic city was destroyed in 923 B.C. by Pharaoh Seshonq (the Shishak of the Old Testament) and had to be rebuilt by King Ahab in the ninth century. On the site of the North and South Palaces were built stables for 450 horses (long known, erroneously, as "Solomon's Stables"). Ahab, who no doubt attached particular importance to Megiddo because of its situation on the road to Phoenicia, his wife's home country, renovated the Solomonic gate, built a strong new wall round the town and dug a large tunnel to ensure its water supply. Thereafter Megiddo enjoyed a period of prosperity, which ended in 733 B.C. with its conquest by the Assyrians in the reign of Tiglath-pileser III. In 609 B.C. King Josiah of Judah was killed at Megiddo in a battle with Pharaoh Necho. After the Persian conquest in 538 B.C. the town was abandoned, but in Roman times a camp occupied by the sixth Legion was built 2km/1.25mi south of the tell. This gave its name to the Arab village of Lajun, now the kibbutz of Megiddo.
In more recent times Napoleon (in 1799) and General Allenby (in 1917) won victories over Turkish armies at Megiddo, and here too in 1948 the Israelis defeated Arab forces which were threatening Haifa.
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