Gaza
עַזָּה
Where was biblical Gaza? At the ancient mound under Gaza's Old City, about 45 km northwest of Beersheba. I mark it certain.
The men of Gaza lay in wait for Samson at the city gate. At midnight he got up, tore the doors out of the ground, posts, bar and all, and carried them off. Later, blind and in chains, he pulled down the temple of Dagon here on the Philistine lords.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- The ancient mound under Gaza's Old City
- How sure
- Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
- Other names
- Azzah, Ghazza, Tell Harube, Tell 'Azza
- Location
- 31.5232° N, 34.4329° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The name never broke. Hebrew Azzah became Greek Gaza and Arabic Ghazza, and people have lived here without a gap. Egyptian records from the 15th century BCE already name Gaza as a key Egyptian base on the coast road to Canaan.
The Bible treats Gaza as a corner of the land. Genesis runs the border of Canaan from Sidon toward Gerar, as far as Gaza. Joshua's southern campaign reached "from Kadesh Barnea to Gaza." It was the southernmost of the five Philistine cities, the last stop on the coast road before the desert and Egypt.
The ancient city stood on a raised mound a few kilometers inland, with its harbor separate on the coast. Modern buildings cover the mound, so little excavation has been possible. Pottery from the Late Bronze Age and from the Philistine Iron Age has come up all the same.
Samson's story ends here, but he was not buried here. His brothers and his father's household came down to the coast, took his body, and carried it home to his father's tomb between Tzorah and Eshtaol. Amos later promised fire on the wall of Gaza, for selling whole populations into exile to Edom.
Visiting today
The mound lies under the built-up Old City of Gaza and cannot be visited.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Gaza on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Ashkelon 19 km northeast
- Gerar 23 km southeast
- Ziklag 28 km southeast
- Ashdod 34 km northeast
- Lachish 40 km east
- Gath 44 km northeast