Climbing the hill that is the remains of the Old Testament city of Gezer.

In Solomon's day "Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon's wife. And Solomon rebuilt Gezer."

1 Kings9:16-17

To the west of Gezer the Costal Plain runs along the Mediterranean Coast. This was the main highway for trade, travelers and, most important, the famous military campaigns of the ancient world.

Tel Aviv is in the distance.

Toni walking on a trail on top of the tel of Gezer that leads down to the famous city gate built by Solomon.

"Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the Lord's temple, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Meggido and Gezer."
1 Kintgs 9:15

This is a six chamber gate built by Solomon. There are others like this in Hazor and Meggido that we also visited.

We are standing on the inside of the city. The trench in the middle is the gutter for the street and would have been covered with rock slabs. The entrance is at the end of the gutter. On each side of the street are the remains of 3 chambers. This would have been seats for the city government and also the main source of military defenses.

Galyn has just entered the gate.

Notice the gutter (trench) leading out or the city under the main entrance.

Galyn is headed for a seat in the city gate.

Here Galyn is seated in the city gate of Gezer where the leaders of the ancient city would have sat.

Galyn is seated in the second of the three chambers on the left side of the city gate.

Notice the remains of the city wall directly behind Galyn. On the other side of this wall would have stood one of the two towers used to defend the gate.

In the corner of the first chamber is a small cistern for water storage.

Here is a drawing of the city gates at Gezer.

Notice the three chambers on each side, but then notice the two towers (one is drawn in) immediately on the city wall

This is one of the memorial stones set up at Gezer.

Many years ago these stones would have been set up at a public ceremony for one of several reasons:
1) Remember an important event as Joshua set up stones from the Jordan in Joshua 4:1-24
2) As a sign of a treaty or covenant with a people.
3) As images to represent the local deities they worshipped.

Here are two more of the memorial stones at Gezer.

The stones may have indicated some kind of treaty among the various tribes of Israel.