Israel - Megiddo

We drove south after leaving Nazareth to the Jezreel Valley which you can see in the background, and to Megiddo (in Greek, Armageddon!)   The line of wood dividing the stone walls of this Tel shows what was found in place, and what was reconstructed on top of that.

This wide, flat Jezreel valley was full of farmland.  Megiddo is a hill on the western edge of the valley.  It was used by various civilizations that were in charge at different times - they have found 26 layers of ruins!  One reference says that there was no further inhabitation after 586 BC.  However, remains of a Christian church from the 3rd century have been found a couple hundred yards away that may be the oldest remains of a church in Israel.  It has a large mosaic with a Greek inscription containing the words "the God Jesus Christ".  We didn't know about this - I read it in Wikipedia- so we didn't see it. 

A plaque showing the layers you are about to see in the next photo

Every place we went featured a water system - so important for security.   Many had massive cisterns and underground passages to springs.

This was a grain reservoir

These are troughs for feeding horses possibly from the time of Solomon or maybe Ahab.  That's a metal horse outline to give the idea.