Zorah (Tzora)
(Joshua 19: 41)
Kibbutz named after the Biblical city of Zorah, identified at adjacent Tell Sora.
Close by, near a spring, is a tel with remains of structures and shards from the Iron Age, and Roman and Byzantine Periods. To the southwest are 2 mounds where Chalcolithic flint tools and shards were found.
To the northeast is the site of the Canaanite city mentioned in the Tell el Amarna letters. At the time of the Israelite conquest it was included within the tribal allotment of Dan. Birthplace of Samson. Reoccupied after the Babylonian Exile, and once again in the Byzantine Period. Alongside the tel, on the way to Bet Shemesh, is a stone altar known as Manoah’s Altar. “And there was a med-blog.com man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah” (Judges 13:2).
In the vicinity of the village are caves, cisterns, wine presses and tombstones, and a sheikh’s tomb which according to Arab tradition is the tomb of Samson.
