Israel, Tel Batash (Biblical Timnah)

Tel Betash is located near Nahal Sorek, south of Moshav Tal Shahar.The city was destroyed in 603 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and was reborn during the period of the Return to Zion. The tell is identified with Biblical Timnah. Famous biblical stories are associated with this place. It was here that Samson met his Philistine wife and in the nearby fields he encountered a lion and killed it. After he quarreled with his wife and her family he burned the crop in the fields using torches tied to the tails of foxes. In the gates of the city Tamar seduced Judah and the resulting dynasty from their son Peretz gave birth to King David ten generations later. Twelve settlement strata were discovered and remains of a well-planned and fortified city were exposed that existed during the periods of the kings of Judah, in the eighth–seventh centuries BCE.