Tel Gezer: The Canaanite City from Joshua to Solomon

Gezer in the Book of Joshua

Horam, king of Gezer

Gezer enters the biblical story in Joshua 10, during the southern campaign. While the Israelites besiege Lachish, Horam, king of Gezer, marches to help the neighbouring city and is defeated. The text does not say that Gezer itself was taken: this is a battle fought against its king's army, far from its walls. The "king of Gezer" then appears in the list of defeated kings (Joshua 12:12).

Canaanites who stayed

The Books of Joshua and Judges stress a striking point: Gezer is not conquered. The city is allotted to the tribe of Ephraim, but its Canaanite inhabitants remain.

"And they drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer: but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites unto this day, and serve under tribute."

Joshua 16:10 (KJV)

״וְלֹא הוֹרִישׁוּ אֶת־הַכְּנַעֲנִי הַיּוֹשֵׁב בְּגָזֶר וַיֵּשֶׁב הַכְּנַעֲנִי בְּקֶרֶב אֶפְרַיִם עַד־הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה וַיְהִי לְמַס־עֹבֵד.״

יהושע טז, י

The Book of Judges repeats the observation almost word for word: "Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer" (Judges 1:29). This account of an unfinished conquest contrasts with the image of a total takeover of the land. It matches what the Egyptian sources suggest: in the Late Bronze Age, Gezer remained a Canaanite city tied to Egypt.

A Levitical city

In the division of the land, Gezer is listed among the cities given with their pasturelands to the Levites of the family of Kohath (Joshua 21:21). The verse names it right after Shechem, a city of refuge. On paper the city belongs to Israel's territory, yet the narrative admits that it stays in Canaanite hands.

Epilogue: Pharaoh, his daughter and Solomon

According to the Bible, Gezer only passes to Israel much later, in the 10th century BC. A pharaoh, whom the text does not name, captures it, burns it and gives it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife. The king rebuilds it along with Jerusalem, Hazor and Megiddo.

"For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon's wife."

1 Kings 9:16 (KJV)

״פַּרְעֹה מֶלֶךְ־מִצְרַיִם עָלָה וַיִּלְכֹּד אֶת־גֶּזֶר וַיִּשְׂרְפָהּ בָּאֵשׁ וְאֶת־הַכְּנַעֲנִי הַיֹּשֵׁב בָּעִיר הָרָג וַיִּתְּנָהּ שִׁלֻּחִים לְבִתּוֹ אֵשֶׁת שְׁלֹמֹה.״

מלכים א ט, טז

This epilogue lies beyond the period of the Exodus and the conquest, but it sheds light on the end of Gezer's Canaanite history. The biblical text is the only source that mentions this gift of the city.

Gezer in Egyptian Sources (c. 1500-1200 BC)

Few cities of Canaan feature so often in the Egyptian records of the New Kingdom. These texts say nothing of Joshua or of Israelites at Gezer, but they show what the city was like at the time the biblical narrative places the conquest.

• 15th century BC — Thutmose III includes Gezer in the list of cities of his first campaign in Canaan, carved at Karnak. A destruction layer from this period is often attributed to his troops.
• Mid-14th century BC — In the Amarna letters, Pharaoh's diplomatic correspondence, about ten letters come from the kings of Gezer (Gazru), among them Milkilu and Yapahu. They call themselves Pharaoh's loyal servants, while their neighbours, notably the king of Jerusalem, accuse them of backing the Habiru.
• Around 1208 BC — The Merneptah Stele celebrates Pharaoh's victory in Canaan: Ashkelon is carried off, Gezer is captured, Yenoam is wiped out. The same inscription contains the oldest known mention of "Israel", described as a people.

The Archaeology of Tel Gezer

More than a century of excavation

Gezer is one of the first biblical cities identified through inscriptions. From 1874 onward, Charles Clermont-Ganneau found stones around the mound engraved in Hebrew (or Aramaic) and Greek, reading "boundary of Gezer". They date to the last centuries BC. The mound was then excavated by R. A. S. Macalister for the Palestine Exploration Fund (1902-1905 and 1907-1909), and by William G. Dever and Hebrew Union College (1964-1973, with further seasons in 1984 and 1990). From 2006 to 2017, Steven Ortiz and Samuel Wolff directed the Tel Gezer Excavation and Publication Project, under the Tandy Institute for Archaeology and later the Lanier Center (Lipscomb University). Publication of their results is ongoing.

• IdentificationTel Gezer = biblical Gezer ("boundary of Gezer" inscriptions)
• OccupationChalcolithic → Roman period
• Canaanite heydayMiddle Bronze Age (c. 1650-1550 BC)
• Managed byIsrael Nature and Parks Authority

The Canaanite gate and fortifications (Middle Bronze Age)

In the Middle Bronze Age, Gezer became a large fortified city. On the south-western slope, excavators uncovered a gate flanked by towers, with mudbrick walls on stone foundations. A massive tower protects it. An earthen rampart of packed chalk and soil, coated with plaster, reinforced the foot of the walls.

The high place with ten standing stones

In the north of the mound stands the most spectacular monument of the site: a row of ten standing stones (masseboth) aligned north-south. The tallest is about three metres high. In front of them, a large stone basin may have been used for libations. Cleared by Macalister and re-examined in 1968, the complex is dated to around 1600 BC; its exact purpose is still debated. It is often seen as a Canaanite "high place", and sometimes as a monument marking alliances between cities.

The water system

A sloping tunnel about sixty metres long, cut into the rock, runs down to the water table. It allowed the inhabitants to draw water from inside the city. First uncovered by Macalister, it was fully cleared between 2010 and 2017 by a team from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and the Parks Authority. Its excavators date it to the Middle Bronze Age, which would make it one of the oldest of its kind in the country. This dating is still debated.

The Late Bronze Age: the city of the Amarna letters

The Late Bronze Age levels (c. 1550-1200 BC) are less conspicuous on the ground. They are nonetheless well documented: monumental buildings on the acropolis, Egyptian scarabs and seals, including a large scarab bearing the name of Amenhotep III. They illuminate the setting of the Amarna letters. Ortiz and Wolff's excavations exposed a large house burned at the end of the 13th century, in which lay the skeletons of three people. The excavators attribute this destruction to Merneptah's campaign. For other scholars, the link with the stele is possible but unproven.

The six-chambered gate (Iron Age)

On the southern slope, the so-called "Solomonic gate" has three pairs of guardrooms on either side of the passage. It connects to a casemate wall. Macalister took it for a Maccabean citadel. In 1957 Yigael Yadin compared it with the identical gates of Hazor and Megiddo and with 1 Kings 9:15. Recent excavators date it to the 10th century BC; supporters of a "low chronology" prefer the 9th century. Either way, it is several centuries later than the period of Joshua.

The Gezer Calendar

In 1908 Macalister found a small engraved limestone tablet: the Gezer Calendar. It lists the months according to farm work (olive harvest, sowing, barley harvest…). Usually dated to the 10th century BC, it is among the oldest known inscriptions of the region; specialists still debate whether its language is already Hebrew or a closely related Canaanite dialect. The original is kept in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums; an enlarged replica stands along the trail.

Visiting Tel Gezer National Park

The route suggested by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority is a marked walking loop. From the car park, where traces of the first excavation camp survive, you pass the entrance to the mound. You then walk past the replica of the Gezer Calendar and the southern viewpoint towards Karmei Yosef.

• The water system: about 175 steps lead down into the tunnel. It soon gets dark: bring a torch and good shoes, as the floor can be slippery.
• The Canaanite tower and gate, seen from a wooden footbridge.
• Solomon's gate, to the east: stone foundations that once carried mudbrick walls.
• The viewpoint over the Aijalon Valley, named by Joshua during the battle of Gibeon: "and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon" (Joshua 10:12).
• The high place with ten standing stones, in a small hollow to the north.
• The sheikh's tomb, with a wide panorama, before returning to the car park.

Gezer pairs well with the other Shephelah cities mentioned in Joshua 10, such as Lachish and Azekah. For the wider context, see the period of the Exodus and the conquest of Canaan.