  gezer () was a canaanite city-state in the foothills of the judaean mountains at the border of the shfela region.gezer in the tell amarna letters tel gezer (also tell el-jezer), an archaeological site midway between jerusalem and tel aviv, is now an israeli national park. in the hebrew bible, gezer is associated with joshua and solomon. it became a major fortified city in the first half of the 2nd millennium bce. it was later destroyed by fire and rebuilt. the amarna letters mention kings of gezer swearing loyalty to the egyptian pharaoh. its importance was in part because of the strategic position it held at the crossroads of the via maris (the "way of the sea") and the road to jerusalem and jericho, both important trade routes. discoveries related to biblical archaeology are eight monumental megaliths (up-ended stones, each of which is called a matseva and are found elsewhere in israelsee example of professional archaeologists applying the term and showing the term applied to gezer's stones); a double cave beneath the high place, probably used for divinatory purposes; 13 inscribed boundary stones, making it the first positively identified biblical city; a six-chambered gate similar to those found at hazor and megiddo; and a large water system comprising a tunnel going down to a spring, similar to that found in jerusalem. ==location== 250px|thumbnail|right|boundary of gezer inscription gezer was located on the northern fringe of the shephelah region, approximately thirty kilometres northwest of jerusalem. it was strategically situated at the junction of the via maris, the international coastal highway, and the highway connecting it with jerusalem through the valley of ayalon, or ajalon. verification of the identification of this site with biblical gezer comes from hebrew inscriptions found engraved on rocks several hundred meters from the tel. these inscriptions from the 1st century bce read "boundary of gezer." ==history== ===bronze age=== [[file:pikiwiki israe
Amarna_letters_locations Archaeological_sites_in_Israel Buildings_and_structures_in_Central_District_(Israel) Canaanite_cities Former_populated_places_in_Southwest_Asia Hebrew_Bible_cities History_of_Israel Megalithic_monuments_in_the_Middle_East National_parks_of_Israel Protected_areas_of_Central_District_(Israel)