 A city which would become present-day Gaza began to develop on the site of Tell al-Ajjul. This city served as Egypt ’ s administrative capital in Canaan, and was the residence of the Egyptian governor of the region. A caravan point of strategic importance from the earliest times, it was constantly involved in the wars between Egypt and Syria and the Mesopotamian powers, and appeared frequently in Egyptian and Assyrian records. Under Tuthmosis III, it is mentioned on the Syrian-Egyptian caravan route and in the Amarna letters as "Azzati". Gaza was in Egyptian hands for 350 years, until it was settled by the Philistines, a seafaring people with cultural links to the Aegean, in the 12th century BCE. It then became a part of the pentapolis; a league of the Philistines' five most important city-states.
