city state · Anatolia and the Levant
Megiddo
Origins
Megiddo had been a walled town since the Early Bronze Age. Its Middle Bronze Age kingdom, rebuilt with massive ramparts and a palace in the early 2nd millennium BCE, controlled the route through the Carmel ridge along which armies and caravans travelled between Egypt and Syria.
Rule and society
Kings ruled from a palace near the city gate, alongside a temple to Canaanite gods. In c. 1457 BCE Thutmose III of the Egyptian Empire New Kingdom defeated a coalition led by the king of Kadesh outside the city and besieged it for seven months. Afterwards Megiddo was an Egyptian vassal; its ruler Biridiya wrote several Amarna letters.
Decline and legacy
The Canaanite city was destroyed in the 12th century BCE as Egyptian power in Canaan collapsed. A later town became part of the Kingdom of Israel, and the hoard of carved Megiddo ivories survives from its last Canaanite palace.
On the connections map
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- Megiddo was a vassal of Egyptian Empire New Kingdom1457 BCE – 1150 BCE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Megiddo. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/megiddo
- MLA
- “Megiddo.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/megiddo. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Megiddo.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/megiddo.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Megiddo’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/megiddo (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻