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MANUEL CIMADEVILLA / COURTESY OF THE SELZ FOUNDATION HAZOR EXCAVATIONS

ROYAL HAZOR. Prior to the Late Bronze Age destruction, Hazor ranked among the principal city-states of the southern Levant, referred to in the Book of Joshua as “the head of all those kingdoms” (11:10). Decades of excavation have revealed the massive ceremonial precinct atop the city’s acropolis and, in adjacent Area M, a large administrative palace. The cobblestone-paved entrance to the palace featured a monumental staircase made with finely worked basalt blocks (shown here). At the top of the staircase stood two wooden pillars, of which only the basalt bases are preserved. Nearly all of Hazor’s Egyptian statue fragments have come from these two areas of the site.