Patriarchal Site
Shechem
SHEH-kem · Modern Tell Balata, Nablus, West Bank · Also called Sychem · 32.2136° N, 35.2814° E
Shechem was a major Canaanite and early Israelite city where Abraham first built an altar (Genesis 12:6-7), Jacob purchased land and dug a well (Genesis 33:18-20; John 4:5-6), and Joshua led Israel in a covenant-renewal ceremony (Joshua 24). It also appears in the New Testament as the region of Jacob's Well, where Jesus met the Samaritan woman.
Archaeology
Excavations from the early 20th century through the 1950s–60s and a 2010s project revealed a Middle-to-Late Bronze Age Canaanite city with massive fortification walls and a fortress-temple some identify with the "temple of Baal-berith" mentioned in Judges 9. The identification of Tell Balata with biblical Shechem is widely accepted, though the attribution of individual structures to specific biblical events remains debated among scholars.
On a modern map
Further reading
Reflect
At Shechem, Joseph's bones were finally buried in the land promised generations earlier — what long story are you part of that began before you?
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