The biblical, city of Lachish is identified with the archaeological mound you see before you, on the edge of Wadi Lachish, along which ran the main road from the coastal plain to the Hebron Mountains.
Settlement began here in the Neolithic period (sixth millennium BCE). In the Canaanite period (late second millennium BCE), Lachish was a key city in the south of the country. During the Judahite monarchy (the ninth century BCE), Lachish was powerfully fortified and became the second most important city in the kingdom after Jerusalem, the capital. Lachish moved to center stage when it became a battleground in two major events in the First Temple period. The first was its conquest by the Assyrian King Sennacherib in 701 BCE. The second was the Babylonian conquest by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE, which led to the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem and the end of the Kingdom of Judah. Lachish was finally abandoned after the Hellenistic period (332-63 BCE).
The visitor route on the tell focuses on structures from the time of King Hezekiah. They were destroyed in Sennacherib's conquest, which is documented in the Bible, Assyrian inscriptions and on reliefs in Sennacherib's palace in Nineveh.
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