Image Details

From Solomon to the Divided Kingdom. This plan and that depicting Solomonic Megiddo (see plan) show how the city developed in the course of a century. Shown here is Stratum IVA, dating to the Divided Monarchy (ninth–eighth century B.C.E.). The city was by then ringed by a defensive wall and was entered, according to the authors, first through a two-chambered outer gate and then through an impressive six-chambered gate (three chambers on each side). Two large complexes, identified by many scholars as stables for horses, appear at upper right and bottom. Safe access to water during times of siege was provided by a 210-foot-long underground tunnel at the bottom of the vertical shaft inside the city, leading to the spring outside the city. The city by this time also contained a huge municipal grain silo.