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Tel Megiddo was a large city established about 3000 BC. The great powers at that time were Egypt and Mesopotamia (Babylon), and Megiddo was the main junction on the trade route. It's a large plain, surrounded by hills. More battles have been fought on this plain than on any other place on earth.
"Tel" more or less means many levels of civilization, built on top of each other that grow and turn into a great mound, or hill (tel). At Tel Megiddo, archaeologists have found 23 different layers of civilization. The Hill of Megiddo ["Valley of Jehoshaphat," Joel 3:1 - 15; "Valley of Armageddon," Revelation 16:16] - is identified as the location for the last battle. Joel says that the king of Kings will win at the end of the battle and reign for a millennium.
Solomon (and many others) had a fortress on the Tel and housed an army of horses. There are still ruins of the stables and the mangers (Latin for feeding trough). Our Lord was born in a stable and laid in a manger - picture below - absolutely not what I've pictured all my life, but makes perfect sense.
Inside the fortress walls, they dug wells so when attacked they did not need to go outside of the walls. Today, there are stairs going all the way down to the bottom. We were told that if you have heart issues, knee or walking issues, go back to the bus and don't attempt all these stairs; if you are in good health, the bus will pick us up at the bottom. No one ever said that after the first few flights, it turns into catwalk-type stairs, and it was a long long way down. For those of us with height phobias, it was tough going, but I got control and made it through!
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Just a little more Hebrew - "Polis" means city, "necro" means flesh, "acro" means top. Necropolis - city of flesh, Arcopolis, top of the city. "Aviv" means spring, Tel Aviv means Hill of Spring. Megiddo = Add "ar" and "don" (Greek) gives you armageddon.
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