Here took place the fatal struggle between Josiah and Pharaoh-necoh 2 Kings 2 Chronicles Long before, the hosts of Israel had won glory here, in the splendid victory over Sisera and his host Judges These low hills around Megiddo, with their outlook over the plain of Esdraelon, have witnessed perhaps a greater number of bloody encounters than have ever stained a like area of the world's surface.
There was, therefore, a peculiar appropriateness in the choice of this as the arena of the last mighty struggle between the powers of good and evil.
The choice of the hill as the battlefield has been criticized, as it is less suitable for military operations than the plain. But the thought of Gilboa and Tabor and the uplands beyond Jordan might have reminded the critics that Israel was not unaccustomed to mountain warfare.
Megiddo itself was a hill-town, and the district was in part mountainous compare Mt. In the Book of Revelation, "Megiddo was identified as the location of the end of the world because it had been the epicenter of armed conflict throughout Israel's history," Cargill explained.
Many archaeological discoveries have been made at Megiddo over the past century. Some of the most important were made by the University of Chicago's expedition that ran from to The story behind the expedition is documented in Cline's book.
One of the expedition's more famous discoveries was a series of "stables," which the excavators thought were built by King Solomon today, most archaeologists believe that someone other than Solomon built them. Related: New clues to King Solomon's mines found. Another important find made by the Chicago expedition was the "Megiddo Ivories" — about ivory objects found beside human and animal burials. Some of the ivories have Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions on them, such as an ivory pen case which says that it belongs to an Egyptian official named "Nakht-Amon" who was a "king's messenger" during the reign of pharaoh Ramses III — B.
Other ivory objects include gaming boards, combs and boxes. The purpose of the large number of ivory goods is a source of debate among scholars, with one possibility being that they are part of a burial.
According to the researchers' reconstruction published in the American Journal of Archaeology in , the main building of the Great Temple includes an enormous, rectangular room with two corridors behind it.
The researchers also found evidence of cultic activity that took place at the temple. Basalt slabs found inside the temple "appear to have been essential elements in the cult, probably acting as tables for offerings or for placing cult fetishes," the researchers reported. The "Great Temple has proven to be the most monumental structure of the period" in that area of the Eastern Mediterranean, the researchers wrote.
As a site of so many battles, it's not surprising that multiple archaeological finds reveal that Megiddo was heavily fortified at times. The Chicago expedition found an elaborate series of gates that they believed dated to the time of King Solomon, or about — B. When the gate system was erected is a matter of debate among scholars today. Related: 10 epic battles that changed history. The Chicago expedition also found a tunnel system that carried water from a nearby spring inside a cave to the site of Megiddo.
The tunnel starts down a shaft that's about feet 30 meters deep, then runs feet 46 m straight to the spring, Cline wrote. The tunnel system "is perhaps the most impressive engineering achievement at Megiddo," Cargill wrote, noting that the design of the tunnel allowed the inhabitants to have access to water when the city was under siege.
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