Dan, Israel Tourism

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Jordan.

History

The tell was the site of the Canaanite city of Leshem (Joshua 19,47), also called Laish, which is referred to in Egyptian texts of the 18th and 15th centuries B.C. It was conquered by the Jewish tribe of Dan, who set up a graven image which they had stolen on Mount Ephraim and built a shrine to house it (Judges 18,27-31). Another pagan shrine was established by Jeroboam I, first king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Since the Temple in Jerusalem was held by the kingdom of Judah he caused two shrines to be built, one in Bethel and the other in Dan, in which a golden calf was worshipped (1 Kings 12,28-30). He also built a palace in Dan. Two hundred years later the city was destroyed by Tiglath-pileser III.