So if you remember way back to Tel Megiddo, the word “Tel” means that it’s an area that has been built up, one civilization on top of another. In the case of Megiddo, it was 26 layers, one on top of another. Here at Tel Dan, it is two. The original buildings and town here were built by the pagan Canaanites. Later, the Israelite tribe of Dan came in and conquested it and built the city of Dan on top of the city foundations of the Canaanite town of Laish. The tribe of Dan was not really happy with their allotment of the Promised Land, and sent their spies out to find a new spot. They found this spot, including one of the three headwaters of the Jordan River, and decided they’d go to war with the Canaanites for it, and won. The ruins we saw here were from the time of David and Solomon, for the brief years that there was peace and prosperity while they were ruling the Israelites. But let’s start at the beginning of our hike.
There is a visitor center, like most national parks in the states, with a gift shop and rest rooms, etc. So we start our hike and immediately cross one of the tributaries of the Jordan. Eitan assures us that this is the highest he has seen the water flowing, because it has been raining the last few days. He said the “sponge” that is Mt Hermon is full, causing the spring here to gush. So the first thing we see is this.
We hike for a little while, weaving around the water and other tiny streams that are adding into the river from the mountain. Here is the headwaters.
We have a devotional here before moving along to the old ruins.
There is the old Canaanite ruins and the stuff the tribe of Dan built on top. Here is the temple area, and the place where sacrifices were made.
Steps up to the altar, which is not a part of the Levitical code. God said not to make steps up to meet Him. This is called a cultic site because of the pagan nature of this altar area.
And here is a video of pastor explaining it that does so much better than I could explain.
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I got feedback that videos inserted like this are playable, so hopefully that is the case for everyone. Here is the Temple Mount from the time of Solomon and David as well.
I found it interesting that the bricks for this temple in Tel Dan were so similar to the bricks used at the temple in Jerusalem.
Here are some more of the pagan bricks. That’s a long time ago, impressive to see ruins that old.
We walked further through the city streets, sort of, and up to the city gate.
Also near the city gate is where the city leader or judge appointed by the city leader would sit and settle disputes. This person would sit on something similar to a Moses seat, like we saw in Chorazin.
One of our crew was showing how it’s done. I also found it interesting that cities with walls around would have 2 or more sets of gates, and the second gate would involve making a left turn to get to it. The reason is so that invaders with swords and shields were predominately right handed. So what does that mean? Soldiers attacking the town would come into the first gate with their swords in their right hands and shields in their left. As they make a left turn to attack the second gate, their right unshielded side is exposed to attackers on the wall inside the city. Pretty brilliant.
We exit the city gate and walk over to a place called the Abraham gate. We round a corner and see this model.
Here’s the backside of the model. This is an area that has very recently been found, like within the last 10 years, maybe even 5, I’d need to ask pastor for sure. Above the model, we look up and see this.
WHOA. This is steps up to an ancient city entrance here at Dan. The archaeologists did excavate this which is how they got the model. Then they filled it back in so it would be preserved and not collapse, as it is mud brick and they are fragile. They built this structure over it so the rain wouldn’t erode it. The hills nearby, just north of where we were standing, is the place thought to be where God cut covenant with Abram. After that, Abram would have entered then Laish through this gate. That is some old archaeological site stuff going on there. Scripture talks about Abram going into Dan. But how could that be? It wasn’t Dan yet. It wouldn’t have been Dan until much later, after the Israelites, Abraham’s descendants, took this area over. See the problem? Pastor gave a talk about how this could have happened in scripture. I did record his talk, but it is an 11 minute video and too large to include on the blog.
What an incredible site. Old. Old Testament old. The next place we went is also old. Next up is Caesarea Phillipi.