Click on photo to enlarge it
When you are touring Israel, the word ‘tel’ comes up constantly; Tel Megiddo, Tel Hazor, and Tel Be’er Sheva are only three of the over two hundred tels in Israel.
Tel simply means, hill or mount [more mound than mount, as mount can refer to Mt. McKinley, Mt. Everest, etc. A tel is nothing like a mountain].
Ancient people built their cities on these escarpments for many reasons, not the least of which was security. A fortified city on a hill was much easier to defend than a city on flat land. And, as is the case in Megiddo, the tel usually had a good water source [more about Megiddo’s water source in another post].
Tel Megiddo is about 200 feet above the Jezreel Valley below and covers an area of about 15 acres.
Click on photo to enlarge it
This model of Megiddo in the Visitor’s Center gives you an idea of what the city may have looked like based on archaeological remains.
Comments
Post a Comment