Whenever I thought of Megiddo, I immediately thought of Armageddon and the valley of Jezreel from Rev 16. For some reason, I didn’t know Megiddo was a city.
Not only was it a city, but it was an important one as well, close to the trade route connecting Egypt and Assyria. Naturally, it has a long history, from 7,000 BC to 500 BC. One of the more recent interesting finds here is a Christian church dating back to the third century – when Christians were under persecution from the Romans.
1 Kings 9:15 talks about how Solomon built up and fortified this city.
And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the Lord and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer. – ESV
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Our welcoming committee. I don’t know if this black bug was a centipede or millipede or bazillionpede. It was about 6″ long. Turns out there were hundreds of them all throughout the site.I wonder how many legs they had. Lots more than 100, that’s for sure! |
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Typical city gate with multiple rooms in the gate. This was a style that Solomon liked to use in his cities’ gates.(For more on this, be sure to see the movie clip section) |
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The plains of Jezreel lie to the east of Megiddo. This is where all the armies of the world gather for the showdown of Armegaddon. (Guess who wins the fight?) I think that’s Jordan in the background. |
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A grain silo. It was probably 50 feet in diameter and 60 feet or more deep, with a 3′ wide steps going around the wall. I get tired just thinking about moving all those stones. |
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If you climb down this well… |
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..and then follow these stairs downward… |
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..you come to a tunnel carved out of solid rock. The purpose of the tunnel was for the folks of Meggido to be able to draw water from the city well without going too far outside the walls.For protection, cities are built up high on hills and have their walls up high as well. Wells, however, are down low, usually near the valley floor – because that’s how springs work.
So if your city is under attack (or will be under attack), it’s a good idea to have a tunnel from your city out to your water source. |
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Here are the stairs taking you up from the tunnel.Overall, the tunnel was approximately 9 feet high and over 210 feet long and 75 feet under the surface. Carved through solid rock, mind you! |