Sokho is partly in the hill country and partly in the plain. The biblical account states that the Philistines encamped between Sokho and Azekah in the Valley of Elah before Goliath’s historic encounter with David, the son of Jesse (1 Samuel 17:1). David slew the Philistine giant with a stone slung from a shepherd’s sling. Rehoboam fortified the place (2 Chronicles 11:7), but it is not clear which of the two sites is referred to. Sokho was one of the cities occupied temporarily by the Philistines in the time of Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:18). The word “Sokho” appears on certain LMLK seals during the Judean monarchy. It is believed by many scholars to be one of four cities that acted in some administrative capacity.
The ruin is situated on a hilltop overlooking the Elah Valley between Adullam and Azekah (Joshua 15:35), in the lower stratum of the Judaean foothills Today it is a popular tourist attraction better known as Givat HaTurmusim. The site, occupied as early as the Iron Age, was visited by Claude Conder in 1881, who writes that it was already a ruin in his days, with two wells in the valley towards the west