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Upper Beth-horon

cityOld TestamentJudea3 verses
Today Beit Ur al FauqaCountry IsraelCoordinates 31.886, 35.114

Upper Beth-horon is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Beit Ur al Fauqa. It appears across 3 verses in Scripture.

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Archaeological Data
Occupation Phases
Middle Bronze Age2000 BCE – 1550 BCE
Iron Age I1150 BCE – 980 BCE
Iron Age IIa980 BCE – 830 BCE
Iron Age IIb-c830 BCE – 539 BCE
Iron Age III (Persian)539 BCE – 333 BCE
Hellenistic333 BCE – 63 BCE
Roman63 BCE – 324 CE
Byzantine324 CE – 638 CE
UnitoAssyrianGovernance, Villages to Empires Dataset (CC BY 4.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732

Biblical History

Upper Beth-horon was a strategically vital town perched along the ascent of Beth-horon, one of the most important mountain passes connecting the coastal plain to the central hill country of Judea. The town is distinguished from Lower Beth-horon, which sat at a lower elevation along the same ridge. Upper Beth-horon first appears in the conquest narrative of Joshua, where Joshua 16:5 marks it as part of the boundary for the tribe of Ephraim. It is paired with Lower Beth-horon in 1 Chronicles 7:24, where both towns are credited to Sheerah, a woman from the tribe of Ephraim who built them, a remarkable notice of female construction activity in the ancient world. The Beth-horon pass was the site of Israel's famous rout of the Amorite coalition, during which Joshua commanded the sun to stand still (Joshua 10:10–14). Solomon later fortified Upper Beth-horon as part of his defensive network (2 Chronicles 8:5), recognizing its military importance. The pass remained strategically significant through the Maccabean period and into Roman times.

Archaeological & Historical Notes

Upper Beth-horon is identified with modern Beit Ur al-Fauqa, a Palestinian village approximately 17 kilometers northwest of Jerusalem, at an elevation of about 615 meters. The site overlooks the ancient pass that controlled movement between the Shephelah and the central highlands. Limited archaeological survey work has confirmed occupation in the Iron Age period consistent with biblical references. The lower town, Beit Ur al-Tahta, lies about two kilometers to the northwest at a lower elevation. The twin-town identification is well-established. The pass between them was used by armies from the Canaanites through the Crusaders and remains a recognized geographical landmark in studies of biblical topography.

Verse Appearances (3)

References

  1. Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
  2. OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
  3. Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
  4. Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
  5. Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
  6. Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]

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