IN TALESTINE IN RELATION TO THE BIBLE. 



239 



is no definite arrangement of the towers, thirty of which have been 

 uncovered, all but two of which are later insertions of superior 

 masonry ; they join on to the wall by a straight joint going right 

 through the wall. Evidently a section of tlie wall has been 

 removed at these points, and the tower built in the cleared space. 

 In the case of the two remaininii towers the masonrv is the same 

 as the wall and is bonded into it. Xear the west end of the nortli 

 side, for a length of 150 feet, the masonry, though inferior to the 

 towers, is of the same general character. It is reasonable to infer 

 that the wall has for this length been breached by some hostile 

 invader and afterwards repaired and strengtliened.* Further, 

 seven of the towers show later additions to their structure in 

 the form of rough masonr}^ with a sloping face covering their 

 bases. Two of these towers are the important eastern corner 

 towers, and the buttressing is clearly added to strengthen them, 

 possibly against undermining. Mr. Macalister suggests that 

 the great break in the wall 150 feet long and the other injuries 

 to the wall requiring extensive repair were the result of Pharaoh's 

 siege, and that, if so, the additional towers and the repaired 

 break is Solomon's work. The hasty and incomplete additions 

 of buttresses of rougli masonry in the seven towers may, then, be 

 the work of Bacchides, who commenced to strengtlien the forti- 

 fications to resist the approaching army of Simon Maccabceus. 

 Tliis may be somewhat speculative, but of this we may be certain, 

 that Gezer was a city with magnihcent and imposing defences 

 ^vhen the children of Israel came, and cities so defended — and 

 there were many such — were not so inaptly described in Oriental 

 language as " walled up to heaven (Deut. i, 28). For tribes 

 fresh from the desert like the Israelites, the capture of cities like 

 Gezer was no small I'eat. 



Tlie fortitications of Megiddo at Tdl MuiascUim have not 

 been so exhaustively examined, but a great wall of sun-dried 

 brick encompassing the whole hill, the lower courses of which 

 have been exposed in many places, is considered by Dr. Schu- 

 macher to be the oldest wall and at least as ancient as the first 

 masonry wall of Gezer. This must have been tlie fortification 

 besieged by Tiiuthmosis III. of Egypt in 1480 B.C. (Petrie). The 

 -capture of Megiddo was a great event, recorded very fully in the 

 -annals of the King, and the magnificent plunder witnesses to 

 Avhat a height of civilisation the people of Syria had then attained, 

 indeed, Professor Petrie suggestsf that it was the capture of sa 



* All these facts are from Macalister, Q. Stat. F.E.F., Jan., 1905 

 t History of Egypt^ vol. ii, p. 146. 



