We are in the area where one of the brilliant battles of Judah Maccabee was fought against the Seleucid army – this is the battle of Emmaus, which took place in 165 BC. We are close to Latrun junction on Road 3 towards Modi’in, very close to the entrance of the ancient city of Emmaus. this is a city that existed continuously from the Second Temple period to the Roman Byzantine period. Let’s walk a short distance, enter Ayalon-Canada Park adjacent to us and go up the hill to view the Ayalon Valley.
In front of us is the Ayalon Valley. A strategic crossroads, dominating the roads from the lowlands and from the coastal plain to Jerusalem and Beit Horon. The valley has a very fertile soil. The waters of the valley drain into the Ayalon brook, which originates in the Judean Mountains and ends in the Yarkon River, and due to its strategic location, many battles were fought for control of the valley.
One of the most famous battels is Joshua’s against the five kings of the Amorites- the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, which ended with the famous call as it appears in the book of Joshua 10 verse 12: “‘Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ayalon”. Joshua called the sun to stop above Gibeon while the moon stops over the Ayalon Valley to allow the pursuit of the armies of the five kings.
A thousand years later, during the 2nd century BC there were fierce battles here between the Hasmoneans, which were a Jewish dynasty, and the Seleucids named by many as the ancient Greeks. Who are the Seleucids? – Alexander the Great who conquered the land of Israel in 332 BC, died at a young age in 323 BC when he was almost 33 years old. 9 years later in 312 BC the Seleucid kingdom was formed during the wars of Alexander’s successors that tore apart the empire created by Alexander the Great. This war is also known as the War of the Diadochi. The war of the successor. Alexander’s successors were mostly senior army officers. At the end, a number of kingdoms were created that had a major impact on the land of Israel, the largest of which were Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Seleucid Kingdom which ruled over a huge area that included Mesopotamia, little Asia, Syria, Israel and other regions. It was the largest country in the Hellenistic world.
800 years later, in the 7th century, during the first phase of the conquest of the land by the Arabs, the valley served as the center of their forces. During the conquest of the land in 636, Abu Ubaydah, the commander of the Muslim forces, died here along with 25,000 Muslim soldiers and residents, and the area was abandoned due to the plague.
500 years later, the Crusaders also valued the Ayalon Valley as a strategic asset and built an important fortress in Latron called “La Touron de Chevalier” meaning, “The Tower of the Knights”. The fort, which is located about 200 meters southeast of Latrun Monastery, was built at the beginning of the 12th century as part of a Crusaders defense system for those traveling to Jerusalem. The fort was destroyed by Saladin’s armies in 1187. In modern times, during the War of Independence in 1948, fierce battles took place here between the IDF and the Jordanian Legion.
What is the origin of the name Ayalon? The origin is in the ancient city of Ayalon, which was located about 2 km east from here, on a hill about 30 minutes’ walk and we will visit Tel Ayalon on another occasion. Ayalon is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in the book of Joshua chapter 19, as one of the cities allocated to the tribe of Dan: But in the Book of Judges chapter1 it is mentioned as one of the cities that the tribe of Dan failed to inherit.
Ayalon is also mentioned in Rehoboam’s list of fortified cities as stated in the 2nd Book of Chronicles, and the history of Tel Ayalon continues to the period of the Return to Zion, to the Roman, Byzantine, Crusader and Saladin periods – I will not expand beyond that and as I mentioned we will conduct a separate tour of the area.
We are near Khirbet Akeed, meaning in Hebrew the ruins of Akeed. The Ayalon Valley in front of us and the entrance to the city of Emmaus is approx. 1K away down the hill. In this area occurred one of the most brilliant battles of Judah Maccabee. On the other hand, Khirbet Akeed is also linked to Bar Kokhba revolt which occurred 300 years after the buttles of Judah Maccabee.
There were eight battles during the period when Judah Maccabee led the Hasmoneans against the Seleucid forces, these battles took place between 166 BC and 160 BC. The Battle of Emmaus, was the 3rd battle which took place in the fall of 165 BC, most of which took place here in the area around us, the battle is described in details in the 1st Book of the Hasmoneans also called Maccabees chapters 3 and 4, and also mentioned in the Book “Antiquities of the Jews”, written by Josephus Flavius. I will not go into the details of the brilliant battle led by Judah the Maccabee in which 6,000 Hasmonean soldiers defeated 20,000 Seleucid soldiers, I will only point out that the Seleucid army set up a fortified camp in the Ayalon Valley, near our location not far from Emmaus.
But how does everything I mentioned so far relate to Khirbet Akeed? This is a fortress that was probably built by Bacchides, a governor and senior commander of the Seleucid kingdom, who came here in 161 BC, 4 years after the Battle of Emmaus for one main reason – to suppress the Hasmoneans revolt. Bacchides conducted a number of battles in Judea, the most successful for him was the Battle of Elasha, the 8th battle between the Hasmoneans and the Seleucids in 160 BC in which Judah Maccabee was killed.
The archaeological findings here indicate that the site was probably destroyed with the death of King Herod at 4 BC when several revolts broke out in Judea against the Romans, and this place was the base of a group of Jewish fighters. The site was built again and was used as a base for Bar Kokhba’s warriors, while they also prepared at the bottom of the hill between the years 132-136 underground caves that are connected to water pits, burial caves and other existing quarries. They did it also in other places throughout Judea, the Galilee, and the Judean Desert in preparing hiding caves.
Bar Kokhba’s warriors also strengthen the fortifications at the top of the hill. This hill, on which the Akeed ruins are located, was used as an observation point and a raiding base for Bar Kokhba’s warriors on the roads from Jaffa to Emmaus and Jerusalem.
Since this fort is small and its fortifications are weak, it was not used as a central base in the Bar Kokhba revolt. See the gate which is built of hewn stones. The width of the gate is about 2 meters, its length is about 4 meters and it has been preserved to a height of 1.70 meters. After passing through the gate there are two long narrow rooms, which are guard rooms or stairwells to the gate towers.
In this section the archeologists found among other things, arrowheads and coins, which assisted to determine the time of construction of the fortification in the Seleucid period and its final destruction during the Bar Kokhba revolt. The earliest coin is from the time of Antiochus the 3rd and the latest coin is of Bar Kokhba 300 years after. Arrowheads and catapult stones found at the site testify to the war in which the place was destroyed. The coins found here indicate that the Romans occupied the place sometime between 134 and 136.
All of Bar Kokhba’ coins that were found here were minted on coins that had been taken out of use, meaning they used a mobile mint and thus the people of Bar Kokhba did not need the melting furnace needed to mint new coins. So maybe the minted coins were of lower quality, but the minting process was simple, required less space and less operational complexity.
And to conclude as usual I have a question for you – what were the three important control centers used by Bar Kokhba during his revolt? The answer will appear at the end of the video.
