Archaeologists Uncover City Gate Destroyed by Hezekiah

   King Hezekiah abhorred the idol worship rampant in Judah. When he began his reign as the nation’s 12th king, Hezekiah “removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah …,” according to the biblical narrative in 2 Kings 18:4.

   Now, the Israel Antiquities Authority reports archaeologists have uncovered a city gate-shrine they believe Hezekiah’s men demolished at the city of Lachish in the eighth century B.C.

   “Before our very eyes these new finds become the biblical verses themselves and speak in their voice,” said Ze’ev Elkin, minister of Jerusalem and heritage and environmental protection.

   Lachish, a walled city that guarded a main road between Jerusalem and Egypt, was the second most important fortified city in the kingdom of Judah, second only to Jerusalem. It fell to Assyria during King Sennacherib’s siege in 701 B.C. The siege is documented in several sources, including the Bible, Assyrian documents, and in a series of reliefs that once decorated King Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh.

   The gate is located within an 80 by 80 foot area containing six chambers, three on each side of the city’s main street. Archaeologists unearthed the northern section of the gate decades ago, but they only uncovered the entire gate within the past few months.

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