Hazor in the Bronze Age ( 3rd millennium BCE to 13 century BCE) 

Hazor was essentially two cities in one. The Upper City—sometimes called the acropolis—was perched atop a hill and covered around 8 to 10 hectares. It held the elite quarters: palaces, temples, and administrative buildings. Below it, the sprawling Lower City extended across more than 70 hectares. This was home to the majority of the population and protected by vast earthen ramparts. Together, the cities made up one of the largest sites in ancient Canaan—covering up to 84 hectares and likely supporting a population between 10,000 and 15,000 people.

During the Bronze Age, Hazor was at its peak. The Upper City was settled as early as the 3rd millennium BCE, but the full two-part city appears in the Middle Bronze Age, around the 18th century BCE. The scale of its construction is staggering—walls, temples, streets, and fortifications all going up at once. Scholars still wonder who had the manpower and resources to pull that off.

In the Middle Bronze Age, Hazor fortified itself with enormous ramparts enclosing the Lower City, supported by a moat on the southern side. The design was intelligent, not just militarily but also in how it handled erosion and water flow. Access to the city in this period was straightforward—simple gates, stairs, and stone orthostats without much architectural trickery.

Then came the Late Bronze Age, when Hazor blossomed into one of the most powerful cities in the region. Monumental buildings appeared across the site, and their remnants remain extraordinary.

But Hazor’s Bronze Age story ends in fire. Around 1200 BCE, the city was violently destroyed. Archaeologists uncovered a destruction layer up to three meters deep, filled with burnt mudbricks, charred wood, shattered idols, and melted stone. This moment matches the biblical account of Joshua’s conquest, but debate continues. Was it the Israelites? A class uprising? A regional collapse? Whatever the answer, the destruction was thorough and symbolic—the smashed statues of foreign gods suggest the destroyers were deliberate and ideologically motivated.

The Iron Age: Resettlement and Fortification (c. 12th–6th Century BCE)

After its destruction, the Lower City lay abandoned, but the Upper City was resettled during Iron Age I. The new population—whether early Israelites or remnants of the old Canaanite elite—lived in pits dug into the rubble. These pits, common in early Israelite sites, may have stored grain and offered protection. Religious life continued in a more austere way, with open-air worship spaces and reused Bronze Age stelae.

In Iron Age II, Hazor was reborn as a fortified city of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. One of the most striking features from this period is the six-chambered gate, traditionally dated to King Solomon’s reign. It was carefully planned—two towers, three rooms on each side, and a roof that could host archers or guards. 

Under King Ahab, Hazor expanded dramatically. The city’s footprint spread across the entire Upper City, and new structures appeared: a citadel, storehouses, and a vast water system. These storehouses, long thought to hold grain or tribute, might have been military barracks or common housing—archaeologists are still debating, given the kinds of pottery found there.

The end came swiftly between 734 and 732 BCE. Tiglath-Pileser III swept through, destroyed the city, and deported its people. Curiously, the destruction layer here lacks the telltale signs of battle. Some archaeologists think Hazor surrendered, knowing resistance was hopeless. After that, Hazor faded into obscurity. A small settlement lingered on the citadel into the Hellenistic period, but the city was never rebuilt.