Khirbet el Maqatir and Mount Ebal

Shortly before the Shiloh dig season began, one of our team members contacted me to ask if I would be willing to show him and his students around a couple of sites that I know pretty well. On the first weekend of the dig, he was planning an excursion north from Jerusalem. He had a lot of stops planned including Khirbet el Maqatir and Mount Ebal.

I agreed to show his group around those two sites, but I warned him that we might not be able to get to Mount Ebal. They usually don’t let tourists go there without a military escort, and since it was Shabbat (Saturday), we couldn’t get a military escort. I wasn’t sure if I had time to do a whole day of touring, so I ended up driving my car separately so that I could head back to Jerusalem after those two sites. Some of our team members decided to tag along, since I had seats available in the car.

Standing in the gate at Khirbet el-Maqatir

I have only been to Khirbet el Maqatir a few times since we stopped excavating there in 2016. It is a bit sad to visit now. The site is overgrown with weeds, and the locals have used our excavation squares as trash pits. We parked at a small parking area next to the highway. Some military guards saw us and came over to ask what we were doing. I explained that we wanted to park here to visit a nearby archaeological site. I told them that I had been one of the archaeologists who had excavated there, so I knew the way to the site. They asked us to wait while they confirmed with their superiors that it would be okay for us to go. We waited in the parking lot, and since it turned out to be a long wait, we read the passage in Joshua that talks about the battle of Ai, since Khirbet el-Maqatir is a candidate site for Ai. Finally, the guards came back and told us that we could go, but it would be at our own risk. We headed up the hill.

The hike up the hill was just like I remembered it. Cross the highway … go up the path … turn at the electrical tower … head toward the edge of the olive grove. We arrived at the site and walked past the very first square that I ever excavated in back in 2010.

I took the group to the gate area, and explained the archaeology and how it fits with the biblical narrative. We talked about the size of the city, the orientation of the gate, the population of the city, and its destruction. We could look out and see where Joshua would have camped, and I pointed out where the ambush troops would have hidden. Khirbet el Maqatir is not the only candidate for Ai, but I think that it is a good one. There are a lot of things that line up vey well with the biblical account.

At the entrance to the hiding system at Khirbet el-Maqatir

Then, I took the group to the hiding cave that I helped excavate in 2013 and 2014, and I told them the story of finding the massacred women and children from the Great Revolt. When the Romans came to put down the Jewish revolt, the people of this city decided to fight rather than surrender. They built a big defensive tower and carved out a hiding system for their women and children. Unfortunately, the Romans defeated the Jewish rebels, found the hiding system, and massacred everyone.

We hiked back to the parking lot and headed out. Our next stop was the Mount Ebal altar. I thought that I remembered the way, but when we got close, the road that I needed to turn on was closed. There was a big gate across it, and soldiers with guns guarding it. I pulled over and explained to one of the guards that we were tourists trying to visit the Mount Ebal altar site. I asked if this was the road I needed to take. He told me that he didn’t know if this was the road that I wanted or not, but it didn’t matter because this road was closed, and I couldn’t go on it if I wanted to.

Thankfully, I had an expert navigator along. Tim checked Google Maps and figured out a different route. We wound through several Arab villages, skirting around Mount Ebal. Finally, we arrived from the opposite direction from which we usually arrive when visiting the site. One good thing about coming from this direction is that we bypassed the military base above the site, so we didn’t get stopped there.

Explaining about the altar at Mount Ebal

We walked up to the site, and I explained about the archaeology that had been done there and how it relates to Joshua’s altar of Joshua 8:30. I won’t go into details about that here. I’ve written about it in the past, so you can check out my old blog posts, “Mount Ebal” and “How I Wrote a Book” if you want to read more.

When I finished explaining about the site, we gave the students a few minutes to look around and take photos. One of the students asked if he could fly his drone to take aerial photos. I told him that he could, but if the military saw it, they might either shoot it down or come and tell us to leave. He decided to take the risk, but he waited until we were finished and heading back so that if we got kicked out, we wouldn’t miss out on anything. He flew the drone, and the military never came. So either they didn’t see us, or they knew that we were there and didn’t care.

We headed back to the vehicles and parted way with the bus tour. They headed to Sebaste, and I headed toward Jerusalem with my car load of teammates. Tim navigated us safely back to the highway, and we arrived in Jerusalem in time for a late lunch.