Tel Hazor: the Canaanite capital of Joshua 11

Hazor in the conquest narrative (Joshua 11)

Jabin's coalition

After the southern campaign, the Book of Joshua describes a great coalition of northern kings. Its leader is Jabin, king of Hazor, who summons the kings of Madon, Shimron, Achshaph and the surrounding regions (Joshua 11:1-3). Their armies, "with horses and chariots very many", gather at the waters of Merom, where Joshua surprises and routs them (Joshua 11:4-9). The narrative then turns to Hazor itself.

"And Joshua at that time turned back, and took Hazor, and smote the king thereof with the sword: for Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms. And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire."

Joshua 11:10-11

״וַיָּשָׁב יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בָּעֵת הַהִיא וַיִּלְכֹּד אֶת־חָצוֹר וְאֶת־מַלְכָּהּ הִכָּה בֶחָרֶב כִּי־חָצוֹר לְפָנִים הִיא רֹאשׁ כָּל־הַמַּמְלָכוֹת הָאֵלֶּה״

יהושע יא, י

The text stresses a detail that matters directly to archaeologists: Hazor is presented as an exception. The other cities of the coalition are taken but not burned.

"But as for the cities that stood still in their strength, Israel burned none of them, save Hazor only; that did Joshua burn."

Joshua 11:13

The king of Hazor then appears in the list of thirty-one defeated kings (Joshua 12:19). To place this account within the wider period, see the Exodus and the conquest of Canaan.

Jabin, Deborah and Barak (Judges 4)

Hazor reappears in the Book of Judges. A "Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor" oppresses Israel; his general Sisera is defeated by Barak, at the call of the prophetess Deborah, at the foot of Mount Tabor (Judges 4-5).

"And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles."

Judges 4:2

״וַיִּמְכְּרֵם יְהוָה בְּיַד יָבִין מֶלֶךְ־כְּנַעַן אֲשֶׁר מָלַךְ בְּחָצוֹר וְשַׂר־צְבָאוֹ סִיסְרָא וְהוּא יוֹשֵׁב בַּחֲרֹשֶׁת הַגּוֹיִם״

שופטים ד, ב

How can a King Jabin reign in Hazor after the death of an earlier Jabin and the burning of the city? Readings differ: a dynastic name borne by several kings, separate traditions combined by the editors, or the memory of the great city attached to a later story. The Mari archives (18th century BC) name a king of Hazor called Ibni-Addu, and some scholars link "Ibni" with "Yabin" (Jabin): this is a hypothesis, not a proof. The rest of the story belongs to the period of the Judges and Kings.

The largest city in Canaan: upper and lower city

Hazor controlled the great road linking Egypt with Syria and Mesopotamia, above the Hula Valley. Excavations reveal two clearly distinct areas:

• Upper city (acropolis)About 12 hectares, occupied from the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC) to the Hellenistic period
• Lower cityMore than 70 hectares, founded around the 18th century BC (Middle Bronze Age), abandoned after the 13th-century destruction
• Estimated populationBetween 10,000 and 20,000 inhabitants in the 2nd millennium, according to the excavators' estimates
• StatusNational park; UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005 ("Biblical Tels – Megiddo, Hazor, Beer Sheba")

A city known from the archives of the ancient Near East

Hazor is not only a biblical city. It appears in the Egyptian Execration Texts (19th century BC), then in the archives of Mari on the Euphrates (18th century), where it is the only city of Canaan mentioned: messengers and goods, including tin, travel there. In the 14th century, the Amarna letters, the diplomatic correspondence of the pharaohs, still mention Hazor, including a letter from its king Abdi-Tirshi to the pharaoh; other Canaanite rulers accuse Hazor of seizing their towns. Conquest lists of the New Kingdom pharaohs also name the city. Hazor has also yielded the largest group of cuneiform tablets in the southern Levant, including fragments of laws in the style of the Code of Hammurabi.

The Canaanite ceremonial palace (14th–13th centuries BC)

At the heart of the upper city, the park's main monument is the palace used by the kings of Hazor in the 14th and 13th centuries BC. Now sheltered under a large roof, it has an entrance staircase flanked by two basalt pillars, walls lined at their base with basalt slabs (orthostats), a cultic platform and, at its centre, a hall interpreted as the throne room. Its plan follows a Syrian architectural tradition, comparable to the royal palace of Ugarit. Next to it, other monumental buildings combine palatial and religious functions.

The lower city and its temples

The lower city, protected by enormous earthen ramparts, has yielded several Canaanite temples: a temple with basalt orthostats, a small shrine with standing stelae, and many statues and cult objects. These areas are largely outside the visitor route, which focuses on the upper city; some of the finds are displayed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and at the Hazor Museum at Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar.

Destruction by fire: who burned Hazor?

The last Canaanite city of Hazor, upper and lower, was violently destroyed in the 13th century BC, at the end of the Late Bronze Age. In the palace, excavators found a thick layer of ash, bricks fired by the blaze, charred beams and jars full of burnt wheat. Statues of deities and rulers, both Canaanite and Egyptian, had been decapitated or mutilated, which suggests a deliberate destruction of the symbols of power. After this fire, the lower city was never inhabited again, and the upper city saw only modest occupation for more than a century.

Three main interpretations

• An Israelite conquest — Yigael Yadin, and later Amnon Ben-Tor, considered that the fire matched the account of Joshua 11. Ben-Tor ruled out the Egyptians (their own statues were mutilated) and rival Canaanite cities, and pointed to the Israelites as the most likely perpetrators.
• An internal revolt — Sharon Zuckerman, co-director of the excavations, proposed another explanation: an uprising of the population against the city's elites, in an already weakened Hazor, followed by rituals closing the temples.
• Other hypotheses — An attack by a neighbouring city, by Egypt or by groups linked to the upheavals at the end of the Bronze Age (around 1200 BC) have also been considered.

After the Canaanites: the Iron Age monuments

Much of what visitors see as they climb the tell dates from the Iron Age, that is the 10th–8th centuries BC, long after the time of Joshua. These monuments belong to the kingdom of Israel, not to the conquest.

The six-chambered gate

The so-called "Solomon's gate" has six chambers and two towers, with a casemate wall (two parallel walls joined by partitions). The excavators date it to the 10th century BC and connect it with the verse that credits Solomon with building works at Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer; other archaeologists, including Israel Finkelstein, place it in the 9th century. Gates of the same plan exist at Tel Megiddo and at Gezer.

"And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer."

1 Kings 9:15

״וְזֶה דְבַר־הַמַּס אֲשֶׁר־הֶעֱלָה הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה לִבְנוֹת אֶת־בֵּית יְהוָה וְאֶת־בֵּיתוֹ וְאֶת־הַמִּלּוֹא וְאֵת חוֹמַת יְרוּשָׁלִָם וְאֶת־חָצֹר וְאֶת־מְגִדּוֹ וְאֶת־גָּזֶר״

מלכים א ט, טו

Ahab's city and the water system

In the 9th century BC, probably under King Ahab, the city expanded: an ashlar citadel, a storehouse with two rows of pillars, Israelite houses. The water system is one of the highlights of the visit: a vertical shaft cut through the layers of the tell down to bedrock, about 45 metres deep, followed by a sloping tunnel about 25 metres long that reaches the water table. It allowed the inhabitants to draw water inside the city during a siege.

The end of the Israelite city

Hazor was destroyed by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III in 732 BC, during the conquest of Galilee (2 Kings 15:29). Afterwards, only citadels occupied the western end of the upper city, until the Hellenistic period.

A century of excavation, from Yadin to today

The site, known in Arabic as Tell el-Qedah (or Tell Waqqas), was proposed as biblical Hazor as early as the 19th century, an identification confirmed by excavation. After soundings by John Garstang in the 1920s, the major expedition of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, led by Yigael Yadin, excavated the site from 1955 to 1958 and then in a final season in 1968. It was the most important dig of the early years of the State of Israel.

Excavations resumed in 1990 as the Selz Foundation Hazor Excavations in Memory of Yigael Yadin, directed by Amnon Ben-Tor (1935–2023), with Sharon Zuckerman as co-director from 2006 until her death in 2014. Since 2022 the expedition has been co-directed and then directed by Igor Kreimerman (Hebrew University). A 34th season was scheduled for summer 2026: research is ongoing, and some parts of the park may be active excavation areas.

Discoveries of recent decades include new fragments of Egyptian statues, cuneiform tablets, administrative buildings of the Canaanite city and Israelite fortifications built over the destruction layer.

Visiting Tel Hazor National Park

Tel Hazor National Park is managed by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. The visit covers the upper city: a marked trail leads past the six-chambered gate, the Canaanite palace under its roof, the citadel and the Israelite houses (moved to expose the palace), then the passage to the lower city and the water system.

Visitor tips

• Allow 1.5 to 2 hours, including the water system.
• The descent into the water system involves many steps: wear good shoes and skip it if walking is difficult.
• The site is very exposed to the sun: a hat and water are essential, especially from May to October.
• The Hazor Museum, at the entrance to Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar, is open to groups only, by arrangement with the park staff.

Opening hours, fees and booking: see the website of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, which recommends booking your visit. Tel Hazor combines well with Tel Dan, about thirty kilometres to the north, and with Tel Megiddo, the other great Canaanite city of the north on the UNESCO list.