Gilgal
גִּלְגָּל
Where was biblical Gilgal? East of Jericho, toward the Jordan, about 30 km east of Jerusalem. I mark it debated. The case for the main rival site is below.
Israel came up out of the riverbed and pitched camp here. Joshua set up twelve stones carried from the middle of the Jordan, circumcised the men, and the people kept their first Passover in the Land.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- East of Jericho, toward the Jordan
- How sure
- Debated Two or more serious candidates.
- Other names
- Galgala, Dodekalithon, 'twelve stones', Madaba Map
- Location
- 31.8594° N, 35.5128° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The Bible puts Gilgal "on the eastern edge of Jericho," so the area is clear. It is the open ground of the plains of Jericho, between the river and the city. Joshua went out from here against Jericho and against Ai, and each time he came back here. The map sets the label in that plain, north of Beit Hogla and near the river.
The exact spot is another question. Byzantine Christians showed pilgrims a church with the twelve stones, and the Madaba Map marks it east of Jericho as Galgala. That church has been found at Khirbet en-Nitla. But it held nothing from the Israelite period, so it may preserve only a later tradition.
The Bible explains the name twice. First come the stones, and a gal is a heap of stones, as in Gal-Ed, the heap of witness Jacob raised with Laban. Then Joshua circumcises the men at Givat HaAralot, the hill of the foreskins, and G-d says, "Today I have rolled away (galoti) the disgrace of Egypt from you." Same letters, a new reading, the way Esau re-read Jacob's name.
For the Walking Tanach episode The Footprint of God I filmed on a hilltop in this plain where the flint breaks naturally into sharp edges, and Joshua's knives were made of flint. Some propose it as Givat HaAralot. That is suggestive, not proof.
The bigger question is what a gilgal is. The Bible seems to have several: this one, one "opposite the Gilgal" by Elon Moreh near Shechem, and one up in the hills near Beit El. And the text often says HaGilgal, the Gilgal. Nobody says they live in "the Beersheba." So I think Gilgal is not the name of one site. It is the name of a type of site.
Archaeologists have found five or six foot-shaped stone enclosures along the Jordan Valley and up the route to Mount Eival, all from the same early period. At Gilgal Argaman a low wall traces a sandal print, heel and toes, and even climbs the slope to finish the shape. The archaeologist who excavated them argued that these were gilgal sites. Maybe Israel was placing its foot on the land: "every place the sole of your foot treads." His deeper reading is that the foot marks where G-d's foot touches the earth. The Temple is called His footstool. The festivals are regalim, feet, and the pilgrimage is aliyah la-regel. You ascend to the foot.
Watch: The Footprint of God
Walking Tanach. Filmed in the plains of Jericho, explaining both meanings of the name.
Visiting today
Nothing marks the camp. The flint hilltop carries old army bunkers facing Jordan, a modern camp on the ground of Joshua's war camp. I filmed there and at Gilgal Argaman, farther north in the valley, for The Footprint of God, and went back to Argaman for Why Are These Ancient Sites Shaped Like a Giant Foot.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Gilgal on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Beth Hoglah 4 km south
- Jericho 7 km west
- Abel Shittim 15 km east
- Beth Jeshimoth 17 km southeast
- Michmash 22 km west
- Mount Nebo 23 km southeast