Megiddo is the English designation for an important ancient settlement and city site in the Jezreel Valley of northern Israel, known alternatively as Tel Megiddo (Hebrew) and Tell es-Mutesellim (Arabic).
Located strategically at the crossroads of several major routes, Megiddo and its environs have been the location for several major battles throughout history. Foremost amongst these was the Battle of Megiddo fought between the armies of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III and a large Canaanite coalition led by the rulers of Megiddo and Kadesh. Much more recently, Megiddo was the site in 1918 of a major battle between Allied troops, led by General Edmund Allenby, and the defending Ottoman army. A final military showdown at or near Megiddo is prophesied in the New Testament book of Revelation: Armageddon, an encounter between the forces of good and evil that has become a byword for the end of the world.
Megiddo has been excavated three times. The first excavations were carried out between 1903 and 1905 by Gottlieb Schumacher for the German Society for Oriental Research. In 1925, digging was resumed by Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago until the outbreak of the Second World War. During these excavation it was discovered that there were twenty levels of habitation. Yigael Yadin continued digging in the 1960s.
Megiddo has most recently (since 1994) been the subject of biannual excavation campaigns conducted by a consortium of global universities, notably the University of Tel Aviv.
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Megiddo was also the name of a 1985 board game, loosely based on the historic battleground. The game was published by a small company called Global Games from Spokane, Washington. Originally sold in a tube (like the more popular game "Pente"), Megiddo revolved around two to six players who battled for ultimate control of the circular board (or "hill"). Placing jewel-like beads on the six radii of the playing board, players struggled to overcome their opponents by placing six beads of the same color in a row, circle, or spiral around the board. Global Games has since gone out of business. Finding copies of the game, particularly in its original tube, is hard to do. A boxed (and inferior in quality) version was also released.
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