Israelite Plaza

View looking west at a plaza just outside the city gate that dates to the period of the Divided Monarchy (ca. 930-732 B.C.). This Iron Age Gate area is located on the south side of Tel Dan. The gate was probably destroyed by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III in 732 B.C.

The entrance to the city is in the center of the picture. When workers were cleaning this plaza in 1993 a worker found a 13 line Aramaic inscription that among other things mentions "the house of David." At the time it was the first extra biblical reference to David or the Davidic Dynasty. It was found reused in the lower left portion of this image.

In the lower right side of the image there is a small "high place" that has been preserved.  In the lower left there are rooms of a "shook" for foreign merchants that was located outside the city gate.

To view a portion of the massive (reconstructed) city wall (to the left of the image) Click Here.

For a map, and brief descriptive comments on the history and significance of Dan Click Here.