In the background you can see Mt. Gilboa. We are standing on top of the tell of Beit She'an. I will show you some more photo's, but we are standing in the corridor that feeds into the valley of Armageddon to the west and the Jordan valley and on to Damascus, to the east. Mt Gilboa is where King Saul and 3 of his sons, Jonathan, Abinadab and Malchi-shua died in a tremendous battle with the Philistines in about 1060 BC. After he knew that his sons were dead, Saul fell on his sword and killed himself, when his servant refused to kill him. His entire army was pretty much wiped out and the Israelites in Beit She'an and the surrounding towns fled in terror and the Philistines moved into Beit She'an. The next day they found Saul and his sons, on the battlefield, and cut their heads off and sent them home and hung the bodies on the walls of Beit She'an. That night some valiant men from further down the valley (towards Armageddon valley) stole into the city and took down the bodies and brought them home for burial.
the tell of Beit She'an is a small area, about the size, on top, of a football field. I am sure that it started out as a hill but it was built and destroyed either in wars or earthquakes about 17 times. It's last inhabitants were the Egyptians. In the foreground of this photo you can clearly see the mud bricks that were the preferred building materials of the Egyptians. In the background is another view of Mt. Gilboa which is part of the Gilead mountain range that extends up to Jerusalem, about 30 miles away to the south.
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