Religious Tourism: Mountain of Megiddo. Israel.

This site, according to Revelation, is where the final battle will be between the forces of good and evil. The name may originate from the Hebrew name "mountain of Megiddo".

In Revelation 16 is a description of the end of the age, and the last battle being fought at Armageddon between the forces of good and the forces of evil. The text: (16:16): "And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon".

In Hebrew the place can be interpreted as "Har-Megiddo", where Har is mountain or hill, and Megiddo is the ancient site of Tell Megiddo.

The ancient city of Megiddo is located 30Km south east of Haifa, and is located at a strategic entrance through the eastern Carmel hills where an ancient trade road (Via Maris). In this site an important City once flourished, and mentioned in the Old Testament as a strong City that played an important role in the history of the Biblical Israel.

The hills behind the Tell (mound) are in the south, right next to the Tell. These hills can be called Har-Megeddon, the source of the name of Armageddon. The hills actually are a lower eastern extension of Mount Carmel. This section is called Manasseh mountains, and they continue on towards the great depression of the Jordan valley. This mountain ridge presented a problem in ancient times, since the passage south had to climb up the mountains. There were only few passages, and Megiddo was one of them - a sort of gate keeper.

Why was the area of Megiddo selected in Revelation as the place of the future battle between the forces of Evil and forces of Good? This can be explained by the following factors:

Megiddo area (and the Carmel/Manasseh mountains) was a boundary between the Kingdoms of the South (Egypt) and the Kingdoms of the North (Mesopotamian Kingdoms - Assyria, Babylon, Acadian). This friction line was always a center of great battles.

One of the earliest recorded battles occurred south of Megiddo. In 1468BC the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III won a decisive battle against the revolting Canaanite cities, headed by the King of Megiddo. After 7 more months of siege the city was lost. The result was a capture of 119 cities in the land of Israel, as displayed in the Egyptian temples in Karnack. The victory over the Canaanites also resulted in the Egyptian conquest of Canaan for 350 years. The important battle echoed through the centuries, and was probably the reason this area was selected.

A view from the Mountains of Megiddo shows the ancient Tell of Megiddo, Mount Tabor in the left background, Har Hamoreh in the right background (with the village of Naim behind it), and the vast Jezreel valley. This valley and Megiddo has seen numerous battles in the ancient history, as described in the old Testament.

Note that the quarry in the foreground reveals a layer of volcanic rocks, sort of referring to the end of the age scene from Revelation "...and there was a great earthquake".

Behind the quarry - Kibbutz Megiddo.