Revelations of ruins at Armageddon today;

Press, 8 July 1986, Page 28

Revelations of ruins at Armageddon today;

Geoff Mein

By

in Israel

The sfnall flat-topped hill overlooking the Megiddo crossroads seems an unlikely place for the world to end.

Beyond the crossroads lies the Jezreel Valley, the largest and perhaps the most beautiful in Israel. It is hard to imagine that such a tranquil setting has witnessed innumerable battles, and stands as an eternal monument to ruin. Excavations on the site have revealed the destruction and rebuilding of up to 20 cities since the hill was first settled in the fourth millenium B.C.

Armageddon — a word which in nuclear parlance has become synonymous with the end of the world — is derived from the Hebrew term, Har-Me-giddo, which means hill of Megiddo. According to the New Testament, Megiddo will be the site where the kings of the Earth will wage war on the forces of God at the end of world history. “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” (Rev. xvi, 16). Megiddo owes its dubious place in history to an ancient transport route which linked Egypt in the south to Galilee, Syria and Mesopotamia in the north. Control of the hill overlooking the Megiddo crossroads was considered of vital strategic importance.

Archaeologists spent more time uncovering the past of Megiddo than they did on any of Israel’s other ancient mounds.

Although the discovery of caves quarried from bedrock indicated that the hill was occupied between 4000 B.C. and 3000 8.C., the name “Megiddo” did not appear in written texts until the fourteenth century B.C. It was mentioned as a large Canaanite stronghold blocking the northward progress of the Egyptian Army, under King Tutmose 111. Megiddo reached the height of its glory during the reigns of the Israelite Kings, Solomon and Ahab, early in the first millen-

ium B.C. It grew to twice the size of Jerusalem and was considered the most beautiful settlement in the land.

The city built by Ahab — which was destroyed in 734 B.C. — was the seventeenth settlement on Megiddo. Three further cities were built and destroyed before the hill was finally abandoned in the fourth century B.C. Megiddo’s strategic importance has continued into the twentieth century, even though the hill and its crossroads have been bypassed by the region’s main transport routes.

England’s General Allenby received the honorary title of “Lord of Armageddon” after scoring a crucial victory over the Turkish Army at Megiddo in the First World War. Armageddon — a word first popularised by Theodore Roosevelt during United States Presidential elections in 1912 — was becoming accepted as a term used to describe a great final struggle or scene of slaughter. In Israel's 1948 war of independence, the Arab forces commanded by Kaukedji fell after repeated attempts to attack Kibbutz Mishmar Haemeq, skm from Megiddo. The hill’s importance as an archaeological site has ensured Megiddo’s place as one of the tourist highlights of central Israel.

Many of the ancient structures have been destroyed beyond recognition, although some — including a public grain silo and a tunnel leading to an underground spring outside the city’s walls — remain well preserved. A vivid imagination is required to recognise other buildings, such as a large stable from the Ahab period. Visitors are assisted by displays of recovered artefacts and a scale model of the city in its prime.

In the shadow of the ruins, the once pivotal crossroads have been reduced in importance to just another junction frequented by bus passengers and hitch-hikers. Megiddo, for the time being, is at peace with its surroundings.

Yet one need look no further than the bomb shelters on the adjacent kibbutz to be reminded that Israel plays a leading role in what is generally regarded as the world’s most volatile theatre of international conflict.

It is not beyond the realms of possibility that the hill of Megiddo will one day return to centre stage.