Welcome to the real Armageddon. There are many sites in Israel that have a long history,
but there are only a few that are home to great events that are destined to happen in
the future. Today I’m going to take you on a tour to one of them – Tel Meggido,
which you know by the name of Armageddon. This place has thousands of years of history and,
according to the New Testament, the battle at the end of the world is set to occur right here.
I want to start with the name – Armageddon. A name that is a mistake… a double mistake. When
the Bible was translated, some mistakes were made, and in a few cases two words were glued together.
You have probably heard of Gethsemane, the garden in Jerusalem where Jesus was arrested. The name
Gatsemani is actually two words in Hebrew – Gat Shmanim, which means oil press. The same goes
for the name of the village where Jesus lived – Capernaum, which in Hebrew is Kfar Nachum, meaning
Nachom’s village. In the same way, Armageddon is also made up of two Hebrew words – Har Megiddo.
Har means mountain, so Mount Megiddo. But the thing is that Megiddo is not a mountain,
and this is where we get to the second mistake: Megiddo is a tell. A tell, in short, is a man-made
mountain, but one that was built unintentionally :) Let me explain. In ancient times, most of the
houses were constructed on foundations made up of two or three layers of stone. On top of that,
they used bricks made from mud, straw, and clay. These houses needed constant maintenance. If there
was a war or if the settlement was abandoned, then after a few years all the houses would
be destroyed by the sun and the rain. When new people came to the site to settle there,
they would use some of the old stones they found, but they would mainly bring in new stones and new
bricks, meaning the settlement would increase in height a little every time. After hundreds and
thousands of years of waves of people coming and building houses and walls and temples,
you get this man-made mountain – a tell. In many ancient sites in the Middle East, you will find 3,
4, or 8 layers, each representing a period in the site’s history. In Israel, you can
find many sites with a few layers – Jewish, Roman, Muslim, and Crusader. Here in Megiddo,
there are about 30 different city layers, one on top of the other. It is insane.
So, the correct term is not Armageddon; it is Tel Megiddo. Bruce Willis, I am sorry. I love
you. You are my second favorite action movie star after Arnold Schwarzenegger,
but you got it wrong. The title of the movie should have been TelMegiddon.
Now you might be asking yourself why so many different people chose to settle right here for
so many thousands of years, and there are three answers: location, location, location. Megiddo is
located at a strategic point. The Land of Israel was and still is a narrow corridor between Egypt
and Mesopotamia (the area of present-day Iraq and Iran), and since antiquity, the main route between
them has run through Megiddo. In addition to the road, the foot of Meggido boasts a spring, and the
surrounding Jezreel Valley is home to fertile agricultural land. In my last video about Tel
Gezer (and my relationship with YouTube), I talked about the importance of the area surrounding the
gate in ancient times, about the water system, and the Bible, and most of what I said in that
video applies to what we have here as well. But here, everything is bigger and much more dramatic.
Here is a small example. At the end of World War I, the British conquered the
land of Israel by defeating Turkish forces. At the end of the campaign, General Allenby,
the British general who led the British army to victory, was asked which title he wanted.
You know what the Brits are like with their royal family… It would of course have been logical for
him to ask for a title with the name Jerusalem in it; he had, after all, captured Jerusalem
after it had been in the hands of the Muslims for 700 years. Yet, Allenby went for the title of 1st
Viscount Allenby of Megiddo. So why did he choose a title with Megiddo in it rather than Jerusalem?
Because he was a clever man and a senior military man. Megiddo is a synonym for battles, for the war
between good and evil. It is not only the location of the battle due to occur at the end of days, but
of battles in general throughout history. In fact, the first battle in the world to be documented was
the battle of Megiddo, which took place here 3,500 years ago. So for an army general, there
could be no better title than – Lord of Megiddo. We are now standing in the Canaanite gate area.
The gate is actually made up of six cells facing each other. In peacetime,
all commercial activity would be held here, in the area around the gate. But we are not
here to talk about peace. Nobody visits Meggido to talk about peace. We are here to talk about war.
3,500 years ago, Megiddo was a Canaanite city. Each city was a city-state, and they had to pay
taxes to Egypt. When they rebelled and stopped paying their taxes, the Egyptians turned up
with their army. Documentation describing the battle was found in Karnak temple in Egypt,
so we know quite a lot about this war campaign. We know how the Egyptian army took a huge gamble and,
instead of taking one of the two wide and longer roads that lead to Meggido, they walked through a
narrow, dangerous valley that led straight to Megiddo, and were able to surprise the
Canaanites. The Canaanites rushed inside the city walls and the Egyptians put the city under siege
for seven months until they surrendered. When you come and visit, you will be able to see
how the story fits the topography perfectly. Fast forward 2,000 years, to the year 609 BC,
and the same thing happened again. This time it was not the Canaanites in Megiddo but the
kingdom of Israel. Josiah, the 16th king of Judea, wanted to prevent the Egyptians from
helping the Assyrians in their war against the Babylonians… But don’t click away! I know this
is confusing and I’m not going to get into it. The main lesson to draw from the battles of Megiddo is
that they have always involved great empires from outside the land of Israel. I have said it before
and I will say it again: Israel is a corridor along which empires and ideas met and sometimes
clashed. Anyway, the biggest battle is the one that is yet to come: the battle of Armageddon,
the ultimate battle between good and evil. The name Armageddon is mentioned only once in the
New Testament, in the book of Revelation. This is an apocalyptic book. Apocalyptic actually means
revelation in Greek and the only reason it is associated with the end of the world is because of
the book of Revelation. So in chapter 16 it says: They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and
they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God
Almighty. Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
Why Armageddon? Why this place? We don’t really know. Some say it may be connected to the battles
I’ve just told you about. Maybe it’s the fact that Josiah, the king of Judea, was seen in the
Bible as a righteous king who died in a battle involving greater powers. Many of the ideas
and symbols that are mentioned in the book of Revelation – the beast, 666, the seven trumpets,
the seven seals, the two witnesses – are not very clear, and neither is the chosen location
of Armageddon. And when things aren’t clear, it opens the door to speculation and interpretation.
In Megiddo, as in most of the important sites in Israel, the tour guide will tell different stories
to different groups. Or rather they will focus on different things, so with Christian groups,
especially evangelicals, the focus is, of course, on Armageddon, the second coming of Jesus,
and the end of days. I didn’t guide too many Canaanite groups because they disappeared
2,500 years ago, but if I had done, they would have been thrilled to see this round altar,
which dates back to the early Bronze Age, so 4,000 years ago. The Jewish groups focus less
on the war between Christ and the anti-Christ and more on Jewish history. In the Jewish bible,
Megiddo is mentioned 12 times and is described as one of the cities that King Solomon built.
There is a debate among archaeologists about whether it was King Solomon who
built Megiddo or whether it was maybe a Jewish king who came after him, Omri or Ahab. Still,
there is no discussion about the fact that there was a strong Israelite city here 2,900 years ago.
That much is supported by archaeological findings and by inscriptions that were found in Egypt and
in the empires of the north – those of the Hittites, the Babylonians, and the Assyrians.
So here we have the stables. It is estimated that about 500 horses were kept here, and not only in
this stable. Now look at this huge silo. Here, they could store hay for all the horses for up
to six months. As you can see, the site itself is not that impressive, it’s mostly stones and rooms,
but let me take you to the most impressive feature here – the water system. The spring was at the
foot of the hill, and the city was at the top of the hill, so how did they stop potential enemies
from controlling the water supply? They dug this shaft, which brought the water from the spring to
the city. It’s only when you see the water system that you realize that these are not just ancient
legends. When the Bible tells us about great cities with high walls and palaces and temples, it
is true.
There is one more fact that I want to share with you. As I said,
the land of Israel is a corridor between empires. The history of Megiddo shows this better than any
other site. A corridor is not a good place to live. Yet this is exactly what the Israelites,
the Jews, did. No other people saw this place as their homeland, maybe the Crusaders for a few
years, but other than that the Land of Israel was always part of an empire, and mostly a neglected,
troubled part of that empire. So in between the great empires, a small Jewish nation arose. This
small nation gave the world the Bible. And not
only that. All the great empires disappeared, the pharaohs, the Assyrians, the Babylonians,
all gone. And who stayed? The Jews. The water system leads us out of the site,
which brings me to the rest of my day. I live in the desert. it took me four hours
to get here. I had to sleep in this area so I booked an Airbnb in Kibbutz Megiddo,
which is less than a mile away. I want to show you what else I did today. Because you hear so
much about Israel on the news, but you are always seeing the same things: Jerusalem, the Gaza area,
rockets… You don’t get to see this… I also want to recommend some nice local businesses. As tour
guides, we tend to think that all the information we convey is the highlight and the center of the
tour. But if you talk to tourists, even if they enjoyed the tour, they don’t remember 95% of what
you said. What they remember is the nice Airbnb, the view from the restaurant and the good food,
and the random things that might have happened. I started the day with a short walk next to
Hashofet River. March is the best time to travel to Israel; you can see how nice
and green everything is. And now I am in Kibbutz Megiddo. The funny thing is that while most people
associate Tel Meggido with the end of the world, the Israelis associate it with… Pluto, this classic
children's book. Where is Pluto? Pluto is a puppy from Kibbutz Megiddo, and he has everything
he needs: soup, and a bone. It all seems very nice, but actually he is tired of sitting alone,
so he rips his leash, barks “hav hav” (side note – in Israel dogs go hav hav, and in Germany they go
vou vou), runs through the field and who does he meet? To cut a long story short, he meets a frog,
himself, a fish, a butterfly, a Kibbutz member, a cow, and Gadi. And now it is time to eat and
sleep. This book was written by Leah Goldberg, who is so famous that most Israelis carry a
drawing of her on them without even knowing it :) If you open your wallet and take out a
100-shekel note you will see her.
So we have talked about Tel Megiddo,
about the end of the world, about Bruce Willis. We have read from the Bible and Where is Pluto?
So I think this is a good time to sum it all up with one final thought. I am saying it here and
not on Tel Megiddo because it is my own private thought and not part of what I would say as a
guide. The afterlife, heaven and hell, the war of the end of days… All these concepts capture
the imagination of many Jews, Christians, and Muslims, but if you actually read the Bible,
the part about the revelation, both in the Jewish bible and in the New Testament is very very very
small; only a few chapters and a few verses here and there. People are often very surprised when
I tell them that the priests in the Temple in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago didn’t believe in the
afterlife. Most of the Bible is not about the war of the end of days, it is about a much bigger war,
the war between good and evil, that each and every one of us is constantly fighting every day. And
that is why I am making my political videos. There are plenty of people who don’t like it. Why does a
travel channel with historical anecdotes and recommendations of hotels and tips on public
transportation need to put out controversial political videos? In short, and in essence,
I strongly believe that my political videos allow me to use my voice and my knowledge to fight evil.
And I understand that not everyone likes it, but fighting evil is more important than trying to
please as many people as possible. If this is the first video of mine that you are watching, please
subscribe so you won’t miss my next video, which is going to be a very interesting political one.
And if you have seen some of my videos, please give this video a like. I want to thank all my
supporters, you keep me going, see you next week, Yalla bye.