The city of Dan represented the Northern border of Israel. It was here that King Hazael of Damascus punctuated his invasion of Israelite territory with the erection of the famous House of David inscription, the oldest document to mention the historical King David. This is where King Jeroboam’s temple can be explored which he, according to the Hebrew Bible, established to house the golden calf and challenge the temple in Jerusalem for religious supremacy. This is also the place where, more than 1500 years before the Romans supposedly invented the arch, the Bronze Age inhabitants constructed the world’s oldest known gated archway.
A Greek inscription reading “for the god who is in Dan” indicates not only the memory of the city’s religious history, but also confirms beyond doubt the identification of Tell al-Qadi (as the site is known in Arabic) with the biblical city of Dan.
