MEGIDDO

ancient site of Megiddo, courtesy, Wikipedia

Megiddo is the site of the ancient city of Megiddo whose remains form a tell (archaeological mound). It is situated in northern Israel near Kibbutz Megiddo, about 18 miles south-east of Haifa. Located in the Jezreel Valley, Megiddo is known for its historic, geographic, and theological importance, especially under its Greek name Armageddon. It was a royal city in the Kingdom of Israel and is now protected as Megiddo National Park, a World Heritage Site.

After the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, the site of Megiddo was allotted to the tribe of Menasheh and it was situated near the border with the tribe of Zvulun. The famous ruins of the horse stables, originally thought to date from the time of Solomon, is now dated a century and a half later to the time of Ahab. The Battle of Megiddo (609 BCE) was fought between Egyptian pharaoh Necho II and the Kingdom of Judah, resulting in the defeat of Judah and the slaying of its king Josiah. But its importance soon dwindled, and it was finally abandoned around 586 BCE. Since that time it has remained uninhabited, preserving ruins pre-dating 586 BCE without settlements ever disturbing them.  The Book of Revelation mentions an apocalyptic battle at Armageddon (Revelation 16:16). The name “Armageddon” was derived from the Hebrew "Har Megiddo", meaning "Mount of Megiddo" and has become a byword for the end of the world.

Kibbutz Megiddo, located less than a mile from the ancient site, was founded in 1949 by a small group of Holocaust survivors from Hungary and Poland who organized at the end of World War II and fought in the War of Independence. In 1952, another group of immigrants from Lebanon and Mexico joined the kibbutz. In 1959, they were joined by immigrants from Argentina. Pope Paul VI's visited the site in 1964 during his trip to Israel. It was there that he met with Israeli dignitaries, including President Zalman Shazar and Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. Yigael Yadin, an Israeli soldier and archaeologist, conducted excavations at the tell in 1960, 1966, 1967, and 1971 for the Hebrew University. Megiddo has most recently (since 1994) been the subject of biannual excavation campaigns conducted by the Megiddo Expedition of Tel Aviv University, currently co-directed by Israel Finkelstein and David Ussishkin, with Eric H. Cline of The George Washington University serving as Associate Director (USA), together with a consortium of international universities.

On October 11, 1989, a Syrian MiG-23MLD defected to Israel, landing at Megiddo. The aircraft was afterwards flown by IAF's Flight Test Center and is now on display in the IAF museum in Hatzerim.

In November 2000, due to demographic problems and economic instability, the kibbutz members decided to change the lifestyle and structure of the kibbutz in a way that every member is now responsible for his or her own livelihood and the kibbutz provides only some welfare services. Also, ownership of housing units and businesses were transferred from the kibbutz to the residents. In 2007, two new neighborhoods were built in the west and north with 108 housing units.

Today, Kibbutz Megiddo is under the jurisdiction of the Megiddo Regional Council. On the west side is the Megiddo Forest and on the east is the Legio Archaeological Site and beyond that, Megiddo Junction of Highways 65 and 66.