Azekah (, ʿazēqā) was an ancient town in the Shfela ("lowlands of Judea") guarding the upper reaches of the Valley of Elah, about 26 km (16 mi) northwest of Hebron. The current tell (ruin) by that name, also known as Tel Azeka (, ʿtel azēqā) or Tell Zakariya, has been identified with the biblical Azekah,<ref>{{cite book |last=Aharoni|first=Y. |author-link=Yohanan Aharoni |title=The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography|edition=2 |publisher=Westminster Press |location=Philadelphia|year=1979|page=431 |language=en|isbn=0664242669 |oclc=6250553}} (original Hebrew edition: 'Land of Israel in Biblical Times - Historical Geography', Bialik Institute, Jerusalem (1962))</ref> dating back to the Canaanite period. Today, the site lies on the purlieu of Britannia Park. According to Epiphanius of Salamis, the name meant "white" in Hebrew. The tell is pear shaped with the tip pointing northward. Due to its location in the Elah Valley it functioned as one of the main Judahite border cities, sitting on the boundary between the lower and higher Shfela. Although listed in Joshua 15:35 as being a city in the plain, it is actually partly in the hill country, partly in the plain. Biblical history In the Bible, it is said to be one of the places where the Amorite kings were defeated by Joshua, and one of the places their army was destroyed by a hailstorm (). It was given to the tribe of Judah (). In the time of Saul, the Philistines massed their forces between Sokho and Azekah, putting forth Goliath as their champion (). Rehoboam fortified the town in his reign, along with Lachish and other strategic sites (). In a clay tablet inscribed in Assyrian script Azekah is mentioned as being a fortified town, during the time of Sennacherib's military excursion in the country. Lachish and Azekah were the last two towns to fall to the Babylonians before the overthrow of Jerusalem itself (). It was one of the places re-occupied by the people on the return from the Captivity (). Identification Although the hill is now widely known as the Tel (ruin) of Azekah, in the early 19th-century the hilltop ruin was known locally by the name of Tell Zakariyeh.Zenger (2008), p. 721 J. Schwartz was the first to identify the hilltop ruin of Tell-Zakariyeh as the site of Azekah on the basis of written sources. Schwartz's view was supported by archaeologist William F. Albright, and by 1953, the Government Naming Committee in Israel had already decided upon giving the