The strategic fortress overlooking the Jezreel valley in northern Israel, controlling the trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Megiddo guarded the pass through the Carmel range; whoever held Megiddo held northern Israel's commercial and military access. The city was a major site of OT battles: Deborah and Barak defeated Sisera by the waters of Megiddo (Judg 5:19); Pharaoh Necho killed Josiah at Megiddo (2 Kgs 23:29-30); Solomon fortified the city (1 Kgs 9:15). Excavations at Tel Megiddo have revealed at least twenty-six layers of occupation across nearly four millennia — one of the most extensively-excavated archaeological sites in Israel. The Hebrew Har Megiddo (Mount of Megiddo) gives Revelation 16:16 the term Armageddon for the final apocalyptic gathering: And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. Whether Armageddon names a literal future battle in the Megiddo plain or a symbolic global conflict, the geographic name evokes the long history of battles fought on Israel's most contested ground.