The history of Tel Megiddo / Tel el Mutaselim (Armageddon)

Tel megiddo is an archaeological site in the Jezreel valley (Marj bin Amer in Arabic) where they found 25 layers of civilizations. Megiddo is mentioned several times in the Bible and it is associated with Armageddon, mentioned in the book of Revelations, the last book of the New Testament of the Bible, as the location for a final battle. 

It is not for no reason that the writer of the book of Revelations chose to stage this battle at Har Megiddo (the mount of Megiddo, from which Armageddon is a corruption).  This is the site of many ancient battles because of its very strategic location. If you controlled Megiddo, you controlled the most important trade route of that time, the Via Maris.

The most famous battle is the battle of Tuthmose III, the Egyptian Pharaoh, who led his army through the very arrow Aruna pass (Wadi Ara) to surprise the Canaanite vasal kings who were preparing for a rebellion. 

In the 20th century the British army general Allenby, who read the stories of Tuthmose III, used the same strategy in World War I and he defeated the Turkish army at the same location, by coming through the same narrow pass.

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