A 40 dunam (10 acres) walled city, on the south bank of the Sorek valley. First fortified in the MB period, continuously occupied until the Hellenistic period. Tel Batash is identified as Biblical city of Timnah. During the times of Samson, it was a Philistine city, where Samson searched for a wife (Judges 14:1): “And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines”. Most of the excavated structures are from the Judean Kingdom period. The city was destroyed during the 7th century BC.

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