James Baquet

Who hasn’t heard of “Armageddon?” The term has become synonymous with a cataclysmic disaster, such as that portrayed in a 1998 Bruce Willis disaster film of that name.

Some may know that the term is from the Biblical “Book of Revelation,” which postulates a symbolic apocalyptic battle at the end of time. But did you know that the “Battle of Armageddon” has already taken place — not once, but three times?

Well, sort of. The Biblical name “Armageddon” comes from the Greek “Harmagedōn,” meaning the “Mount of Megiddo,” actually an archaeological site built up of layers of ruins. Today it is an Israeli national park and a World Heritage Site.

The most recent “Battle of Megiddo” was the one which took place in 1918, between the British and Ottoman Empires and their allies near the end of World War I. This ended in a British victory and ended the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of that war. Palestine remained in British hands until the State of Israel was formed in 1947.

Prior to that was the Battle of Megiddo in 609 BCE, when an Egyptian Pharaoh led his troops through the Kingdom of Judah on his way to fight against the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The Judaeans challenged the Egyptians’ right to pass — and lost not only the battle, but their freedom as well, as it led to the so-called Babylonian captivity in the sixth century BCE.

But the earliest of battles at Megiddo was some eight and a half centuries earlier, in the early 15th century BCE. Again, a Pharaoh was involved, and the record is preserved in hieroglyphs written on the walls of a temple to the Egyptian sun god in Karnak, Thebes. It is considered to be the first battle ever recorded in relatively reliable detail. It is also the first time that a body count was taken after a battle: The Egyptians suffered 4,000 dead and 1,000 wounded; the Canaanites lost 8,300 killed, and 3,400 were captured.

The victorious Egyptians forced their Canaanite opponents into the walls of Megiddo, where a seven-month siege ensued. When Egyptian dominance was restored in Canaan, Pharaoh Thutmose III went on to extend the Egyptian Empire to its greatest expanse ever.

Vocabulary:

Which words above mean:

1. state of imprisonment;

2. proposes; suggests;

3. having the same meaning (as);

4. tally of deaths;

5. rule; authority;

6. Egyptian writing system;

7. of a battle at the end of time;

8. disastrous;

9. an Egyptian king;

10. followed