Tel Megiddo: a Canaanite city in the time of Joshua

Megiddo in the books of Joshua and Judges

A defeated king…

Megiddo appears in the list of thirty-one Canaanite kings defeated by Joshua and the Israelites, next to Taanach, its neighbour in the Jezreel Valley. The text does not describe any capture of the city: it only mentions its king.

"The king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one."

Joshua 12:21

״מֶלֶךְ תַּעְנַךְ אֶחָד מֶלֶךְ מְגִדּוֹ אֶחָד״

יהושע יב, כא

… but a city that remained Canaanite

When the land is divided, Megiddo is allotted to Manasseh (Joshua 17:11). The text immediately adds that the tribe could not take it, any more than Beth-shean, Ibleam, Dor, Endor and Taanach.

"Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land. Yet it came to pass, when the children of Israel were waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute; but did not utterly drive them out."

Joshua 17:12-13

״וְלֹא יָכְלוּ בְּנֵי מְנַשֶּׁה לְהוֹרִישׁ אֶת־הֶעָרִים הָאֵלֶּה וַיּוֹאֶל הַכְּנַעֲנִי לָשֶׁבֶת בָּאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת״

יהושע יז, יב

The Book of Judges repeats the same observation: "Neither did Manasseh drive out […] the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land" (Judges 1:27). Finally, the Song of Deborah recalls a battle "in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo" (Judges 5:19), following the victory over Sisera and over Jabin, king of Hazor.

"The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money."

Judges 5:19

Megiddo, a vassal city of Egypt

The battle of Thutmose III

In the 15th century BC, Megiddo led a coalition of Canaanite cities in revolt against Egypt, with the support of the kingdom of Mitanni. Pharaoh Thutmose III marched through the narrow Aruna pass (Wadi Ara), crushed the allies on the plain at the foot of the city, then besieged Megiddo for seven months before taking it. His annals, carved in the temple of Karnak, list booty of hundreds of chariots and thousands of horses. This battle, dated around 1457 BC in the most common chronology (others suggest 1479 or 1482), is often described as the first battle known from a detailed account.

The Amarna letters and King Biridiya

In the 14th century BC, Megiddo was a vassal city of Egypt. Among the Amarna letters, a diplomatic archive found in Egypt, six were sent to the pharaoh by Biridiya, king of Megiddo. He reports on the labour and tribute he supplied and complains of attacks by Labayu, king of Shechem. These letters give a concrete picture of Late Bronze Age Canaan: small rival kingdoms, watched over by Egypt, which the Book of Joshua later describes as each ruled by its own "king".

Palace, gate and ivories of the Late Bronze Age

Near the present entrance to the tell, visitors see a four-chambered Canaanite gate of the Late Bronze Age. The city was not then enclosed by a wall: this gate, more ceremonial than defensive, led to the palace quarter. Of the Canaanite palace itself, only a two-metre-thick wall and some basalt steps survive on site; it measured at least 50 by 30 metres, with a central courtyard surrounded by rooms, in a plan influenced by Syrian architecture.

In one of its rooms, the Chicago excavators found in 1937 a hoard of several hundred carved ivory objects: plaques, boxes, combs and game pieces decorated with sphinxes, griffins and court scenes. These Megiddo ivories date from the end of the Late Bronze Age and the very beginning of the Iron Age; they blend Egyptian, Syrian, Hittite and Aegean styles. They are now divided between Jerusalem and Chicago.

The palace was destroyed by fire in the second half of the 12th century BC. A statue base bearing the name of Pharaoh Ramesses VI, found at the site, shows that Egyptian influence still persisted there shortly before this destruction.

The sacred area: Early Bronze Age temples and round altar

From the northern lookout, you look down into the deep trench dug by the Chicago expedition. Its face shows more than twenty superimposed cities, down to bedrock. At the bottom lies the sacred area, in continuous use for more than two thousand years, from the 4th millennium BC to the beginning of the Iron Age.

• Early Bronze I templeLate 4th millennium BC: walls four metres thick, one of the largest buildings of its time in the Levant
• Round altarAbout 8 metres in diameter, seven steps, Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC)
• Megaron templesThree temples built towards the end of the Early Bronze Age, around 2300 BC
• "Tower temple"Late Middle Bronze Age, in use until the beginning of the Iron Age; dismantled by the excavators

The great round altar, built of fieldstones and preserved to its full height, is Megiddo's best-known image. Many animal bones were found at its base. It is more than a thousand years older than the time of Joshua: it bears witness to the antiquity of the city's Canaanite cults, not to an event in the biblical narrative.

Gate, "stables" and water system: the Iron Age

Most of the monuments that made Megiddo famous are later than the Canaanite city. They belong to the kingdom of Israel, in the 10th–8th centuries BC, and not to the Exodus or the conquest.

• The six-chambered gate — long attributed to Solomon on the basis of 1 Kings 9:15, which groups Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer; the current excavators date it rather to the 8th century, under Jeroboam II.
• The "stables" — two large complexes with pillars and troughs, attributed to Ahab (9th century) or Jeroboam II (8th century); some scholars see them instead as storehouses or barracks.
• The ashlar palaces — dated, depending on the school, to the 10th century (Solomon) or the 9th century (the Omride dynasty).
• The water system — a shaft about 36 metres deep and a tunnel about 70 metres long leading to the spring at the foot of the tell, cut in the time of the kings of Israel.
• The great silo — seven metres deep, attributed to one of the last kings of Israel or to the Assyrian period.

The city was taken in 732 BC by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III, who made it the capital of a province. It was also at Megiddo that King Josiah died facing Pharaoh Necho, around 609 BC (2 Kings 23:29). For this later history, see the period of the Judges and Kings.

More than a century of excavation at Megiddo

• 1903–1905 — Gottlieb Schumacher cuts a large north–south trench and uncovers a palace and tombs of the 2nd millennium BC.
• 1925–1939 — The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, funded by John D. Rockefeller Jr., strips the tell layer by layer (successive directors: Clarence Fisher, P. L. O. Guy, Gordon Loud). Most of the monuments visible today were exposed at that time.
• 1960–1971 — Yigael Yadin (Hebrew University) conducts short seasons, notably on the Iron Age gates and palaces.
• Since the 1990s — The Tel Aviv University expedition, led by Israel Finkelstein and David Ussishkin, with Baruch Halpern in the early seasons, takes up the study of the stratigraphy and chronology. It is now directed by Israel Finkelstein, Matthew J. Adams and Mario A. S. Martin.

An excavation season was scheduled from 27 June to 23 July 2026, with objectives including the Middle Bronze Age gates and the search for the archive of the Late Bronze Age kings. Megiddo is thus one of the key sites in the debate over Iron Age chronology in Israel.

Visiting Megiddo National Park

Megiddo National Park is managed by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. The entrance pavilion, built by the Chicago expedition in the 1920s, offers a short film, a model of the tell and an exhibition on the excavations. The marked, numbered trail passes the Canaanite gate, the palace wall, the Israelite gate, the northern stables, the lookout over the sacred area, the great silo and the southern stables, before ending with the descent into the water system.

Visitor tips

• Allow 1.5 to 2 hours.
• The water system has 187 steps down and 77 steps up; it exits into a car park outside the site. Either have a vehicle waiting at the exit or walk back along a path at the foot of the tell.
• An accessible shuttle takes wheelchair users to the top of the tell.
• Excavations are ongoing: stay on the marked paths and do not climb on the walls.

Opening hours, fees and booking: see the website of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Megiddo naturally pairs with Tel Hazor, the other great Canaanite city of the north, inscribed by UNESCO in the same listing.