Tel Hazor
“Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace, the terraces,[a] the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer.” (Kings 1 9:15)
This post will focus on Tel Hazor after in my previous posts we discussed Megiddo and Gezer. If you missed those posts you can find them in my Blog.
Tel Hazor is mentioned by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It is located to the north of the Sea of Galilee and it is one of the biggest archaeological sites in Israel – 840 dunam. It was inhabited from the end of the 3rd century BCE, which means more than 5,000 years ago.
The City of Hazor was one of the biggest cities in the area even in the Canaanite period.
Hazor is mentioned in the Bible in Kings 1 9:15 and in the Book of Joshua 11:10-13
It is also mentioned in the Execration texts (ancient Egyptian hieratic texts also referred to as Proscription Lists) that were written 2,000 years BCE.
The diggings began in 1875 by John Garstang to be followed by an in depth research done by Prof. Yigal Yadin of the Hebrew University between the years 1955 to 1958. From 1990, Prof. Amnon Ben-Tor has been leading all diggings in the Hazor site.
Many letters were found on clay tablets, some of them in Cuneiform Script. The later ones are in Hebrew and Aramaic. On one of the broken tablets found there are some written rules dealing with the relationship between master & slave. These are similar to Hammurabi’s rules.
Hazor also boasts remnants of a huge magnificent palace, a royal fortress gate from limestone, a city gate with four chambers from Solomon’s period, a water project and cistern, a temple from the late Bronze period, many tombs, and many other archaeological findings.
Please note: unfortunately I could not find one good video that I felt was good enough; hence, I have taken 3 different parts from 3 diff. videos in order to give you the best possible explanation and overview.
I’d like to thank you Prof. Amnon Ben-Tor & Biblical Productions for the videos.
Tel Hazor is a popular site and is included in many tours that I guide.
