Hazor was the giant of Canaan — an upper city and a vast lower city, which the Bible calls 'the head of all those kingdoms.' Excavators found that its Late Bronze city ended in a fierce fire in the thirteenth century BC, with Canaanite statues deliberately smashed and beheaded, and that a later Israelite six-chambered gate rose above the ruins. Joshua is said to have burned Hazor; the burning is certainly there. Who lit it is another matter.
- Where it is
- Tel Hazor, Upper Galilee
- Scripture
- Joshua 11:10-13 · 1 Kings 9:15
What the evidence confirmsA great Canaanite Hazor was violently destroyed by fire in the thirteenth century BC — the burned-city picture the narrative gives.
What it does not proveNo inscription names the attacker; Israelites, Sea Peoples, rival Canaanites, or internal collapse are all seriously proposed. The fire is documented; the cause is not.
Sources & further reading