‘Joshua…Conquered Hazor and struck it’s king by the sword…Hazor…The Leader of all those kingdoms. (Only) Hazor he burned in fire… All of the others…Israel did not burn (Joshua 11: 10-13).’
Biblical Hazor is one of the premier archeological sites in Israel. Many of the most epic events of the Bible took place here, and even UNESCO listed it as a world heritage site in 2005. Such a world class treasure must surely be on the “must-see” portion of itineraries, right?
The shocking truth is that few tourists (even veteran tourists who are Bible literate) have ever even heard of it. Despite my vast knowledge of Hazor, I have only guided here twice, both times to tourists who annually visit Israel, and only because I recommended it to them. On the first visit, tears streamed down my tourist’s cheeks when she realized that she was literally standing in a place where G-d led His people in battle.
When people read about the “Land of Canaan” in the Bible, they think of a large kingdom encompassing most of modern Israel, but actually Canaan was made up of city states with their own kings who were often at war with each other. According to the Bible, Hazor was the most powerful one. In fact, excavations have shown Hazor to have been the largest Tel (archeological site) in Israel at 820 Dunams (or over 200 acres). To put this into perspective, David’s Jerusalem was only 61 dunams (15 acres).