Mareshah

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.km/29,000sq.yds, it is only a third of the size of neighboring Lachish. About 920 B.C. it was fortified by Solomon's son Rehoboam along with Lachish and fourteen other towns, "which are in Judah and in Benjamin fenced cities" (2 Chronicles 11,8-10). It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. and after the Israelites' return from the Babylonian Captivity was not reoccupied by Jews: like other places in southern Judaea and the Negev, it was resettled by Edomites, who made it their capital. In the fourth century B.C. the Phoenicians founded a colony here - a departure from their usual practice of establishing their settlements on the coast. In the third century B.C. the town was Hellenised and, under the name of Marissa, became the chief place in the province of Idumaea. Around 160 B.C. it was taken by Judas Maccabeus during his advance from Hebron to Ashdod (1 Maccabees 5,66), and about 115 B.C., in the reign of the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus I, it was forcibly Judaised along with the rest of Idumaea. The town was finally destroyed in 40 B.C.

The site was identified as the Biblical city of Mareshah by an American scholar, Edward Robinson, in 1838 and was excavated by the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1900.