More than Battles of Armageddon: The Forgotten Story of Megiddo, An Archaeological Paradise

The city of Megiddo is well-known from ancient texts, but it was overlooked for many years. Over the centuries, people had forgotten whether Megiddo was a real city, or just a legend from the past.

Locating Megiddo

Megiddo is located near the Kibbutz Megiddo, about 30 kilometers (18.64 miles) from the city of Haifa, Israel. Ancient Greeks called it Armageddon. It thrived as a Canaanite city in the Bronze Age, but there is also a very dark story behind its fame in the modern world.

Late Bronze Age city gate at Megiddo. (Golf Bravo/CC BY SA 3.0)

Megiddo is mostly remembered for the battles that took place there. The city faced at least three very important battles in history. The first one was in the 15th century BC, when king Thutmose III fought against a huge coalition of Canaanites led by the head of Megiddo and the city of Kadesh.

A few centuries later, in 609 BC, Pharaoh Necho II decided to follow in his ancestor’s footsteps and fight on the same battlefield with King Josiah of the Kingdom of Judah. The third battle was more recent. It took place in 1918 during World War I, when the Allied troops faced the Ottoman army. According to the Bible and Christian teachings, the city of Megiddo was also the site of the last battle between Satan and Jesus.