Some nineteen miles southeast of modern Haifa in the state of Israel lie the ruins of ancient Megiddo. That city occupied a strategic spot overlooking and dominating the plain of Esdraelon. Over a period spanning more than three millenniums the area around Megiddo has been the scene of many decisive battles. As noted in M. R. Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament, ‘Jews, Saracens, crusaders, Egyptians, Persians, Druses, Turks and Arabs have all pitched their tents on the plain of Esdraelon.’

However, while the name Megiddo is attached both to a city and to the adjacent plain, no known geographical site in the Middle East or elsewhere is called “Mountain of Megiddo.”

[Picture on page 388]

The area around Megiddo is not the symbolic Har–Magedon where God’s great war will be fought