Gezer

Gezer (גזר in Hebrew) sits in the foothills of the Judaean Mountains, on the edge of the Shephelah region, about halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in central Israel. Today it is an Israeli national park. In the Hebrew Bible, this site is linked to the figures Joshua and Solomon. The tell rises 229 meters (751 feet) above sea level, offering wide views of the plains to the west, north, and east. During the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE, Gezer grew into a major fortified Canaanite city-state. It was later destroyed by fire and then rebuilt. The city first appears in ancient Egyptian inscriptions. Its strategic value came from sitting at the junction of two important trade routes: the coastal route connecting Egypt with Syria, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia, and the road leading to Jerusalem and Jericho. In Roman and Byzantine times, the site had only a sparse population. In the modern era, Gezer was the location of the depopulated Palestinian Arab village of Abu Shusha, whose residents either fled or were killed by the Givati Brigade during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

In biblical accounts, Gezer lay on the outskirts of Jewish territory and was incorporated later. The Book of Joshua tells of a "king of Gezer" (Joshua 10:33) who went to help his allies at Lachish and was killed there. Joshua also lists Gezer as a city given to the tribe of Ephraim and as a Levitical city for the Kohathites (Joshua, chapter 21). The 4th-century writer Eusebius described the biblical Gezer of his own time, noting that it was part of Ephraim’s allotment for the Levites, that Joshua besieged and killed its king, that Solomon later built there, and that it was then called Gazara, a village four milestones north of Nikopolis (Emmaus). He added that the tribe of Ephraim did not drive out the foreigners living there (Judges 1:29).

According to the Hebrew Bible—the only source for this event—an unnamed Egyptian pharaoh (sometimes identified as Siamun) conquered and burned Gezer around the beginning of the 10th century BCE during a campaign in Philistia. This pharaoh then gave the city to King Solomon as a dowry for his daughter. Solomon rebuilt and fortified Gezer.