Area M Podium Staircase Detail

A photo of the recently (2018) discovered staircase.  Visible are seven steps.  The staircase is about 15 feet wide.  It is made of carved basalt and the stairs were carved to be interlocking.

In speaking with The Times of Israel, Bechar said that while these stairs, strangely modern in appearance, are grand in their own right, it is quite possible that they are not “the” staircase into the palace, rather that they could lead to another courtyard, which could then lead to another large staircase.

It seems that the staircase was constructed around 1500 B.C. and was "destroyed" at the end of the Late Bronze Age—ca. 1250 B.C.

The current excavator (Dr. Shlomit Bechar) thinks that this staircase may lead to a palace that is still awaiting excavation.

See the Times of Israel Large 3,500-year-old staircase hints at conquered Canaanite kingdom's grandeur, 24 July 2019.

Bechar, Shlomit. “How to Find the Hazor Archives (I Think),” Biblical Archaeology Review 43, no. 2 (2017): 55–60, 70.

Zuckerman, Sharon.  "Where is the Hazor Archive Buried?"  Biblical Archaeology Review, vol. 32, no. 2 (March/April, 2006):28–37.