Tel Megiddo

I thought I had finished with all the sites we visited on Thursday, February 25th, but I missed Tel Megiddo. A tel is a hill that has been built up because people have built on the ruins of previous settlements. There are 25 layers of ruins at Tel Megiddo. Most of the excavations here have been done down to bible times, although some parts have been excavated to lower levels.

From Tel Megiddo you can see the Armagedon valley.

King Ahab had a fortress here and in order to have access to water he had a tunnel built to a spring that was outside the fortress. He sealed off access to the spring from the outside so the only way to get to it was through the tunnel from inside the fort. Here is the spring at the bottom of the tunnel - the water had to be carried up 183 steps after crossing the tunnel.