MEGIDDO Tel el-Mutesellim means (“hill of the governor”)
This was a royal city of the Canaanites, 22 miles, north of Shechem on the southwest edge of the plains of Jezreel, the most famous battlefield in the history of the world. Thutmose III battled with Megiddo in 1468 B.C.; the walls of his temple at Thebes tell of his war plans. His famous comment was, “Taking Megiddo is like taking a thousand cities.” The mound, which was extensively excavated between 1925 and 1939 by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, covers 13 acres and reveals 20 cities – each built on the ruins of the preceding one – dating from earliest times to 400 B.C. Its water system dates back 2,800 years. A shaft 120 feet deep connects with a spring outside the city walls by a tunnel 215 feet long, which protected the city’s water supply. Sunken grain silos from the time of Jeroboam II protected the grain. Exquisite ivories, a fragment of an Egyptian Stelle bearing the name of Shishak, an elaborate City Gate, and the Seal of Sheva, are among the important discoveries at Megiddo. The Hebrew Seal of Sheva has the following words inscribed on it: Eved Yravam, which means “servant of Jeroboam.” Although this seal is in a museum in Istanbul, most of the finds at Megiddo have been placed in the Rockefeller Museum and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
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