The expression "large cities and fortified up to heaven" is used to demonstrate the size and strength of the cities in the Land at that time. Are there still any relics from those large and fortified to be found in Israel today? What means of fortification were used then?
Archeologists call the period preceding the Israelite period the "Middle Bronze Age" and we have indeed uncovered remains of large and fortified cities in Israel from that Age, that have not been found in any other period before the First and Second Temple period. Hazor, with an area of more than 800 dunams, is the largest city in which relics were uncovered. This city was already mentioned in the Book of Yehoshua: "for Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms." (Yehoshua 11:10)
The unique method of fortification in the Middle Bronze Age was to surround the city with huge ramparts made up of inclining walls on both sides. In order to make access to the outer rampart even more difficult, a canal (moat) encompassing the entire city was dug. We do not know the height of the ramparts, since they were not preserved in their entirety; however, by examining the rampart bases we can estimate that they must have been huge. The bases uncovered in Hazor are 60 meters wide and in Tel Dan bases of 50 meters wide were found at certain points. Researchers believe that the Tel Dan ramparts were 20 meters high. In comparison, the Old City walls in Jerusalem are three meters wide and just 12 meters high.
Building ramparts to fortify cities in the Land of Israel was common mainly along the coastal plain, with its abundant supply of earth. However, in the terraced Judean Hills, ramparts were built from very large stones because there was very little earth available. In recent excavations at the Gihon Spring in the City of David, a wall from the Middle Bronze Age was uncovered which was built from gigantic stones and which is estimated to have been 18 meters high. Another example was found in the city of Bet El (Beitin). Although this was a small city (15 dunams), the surrounding wall was 3.5 meters wide.
Although we have no proof of the existence of the children of Anak (the giant), the above-mentioned findings show that there was indeed a need to support and encourage the Jewish people before they went to war against the inhabitants of the fortified cities. However, as we saw in the Parasha of Shelach Lecha, their numbers were not so large.
Parashat Drachim – an archeological and geographical view of the weekly Parashot
Dr. Yitzhak Meitlis
Maggid Books, 2014