Archaeologists excavating at En Esur, located half-way between Tel Aviv and Haifa, have unearthed a massive 5000-year old city. At its height, it is estimated to have covered 160 acres and to have been home to 6000 residents. While smaller than other Early Bronze Age cities in Mesopotamia and Egypt, En Esur was the largest ancient city in the Southern Levant, and one of the earliest. For comparison, it was more than ten times the size of Jericho, and 60 acres larger than Tall el-Hammam, a large, Early Bronze Age city in Jordan that had a wall enclosing an area approximately 100 acres. Archaeologists have uncovered a large fortification wall that surrounded site, residential and public buildings, streets and alleys, and a cemetery outside of the city. In addition, many pottery fragments, flint tools, and basalt stone vessels were discovered, as well as a structure containing burned animal bones and figurines that has been identified as an ancient temple. The city was eventually abandoned around 3050 BC, and later people only inhabited small portions of the site. This has allowed archaeologists to study an ancient city that has largely remained undisturbed throughout the millennia. According to the dating of the site, it would appear that the city at En Esur was a bustling metropolis in the Southern Levant at least 1000 years before Abraham lived.
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