At that time King Horam of Gezer marched to the help of Lachish; but Joshua defeated him and his army, letting none of them escape.
Yehoshua 10:33
We next made our way over to Gezer. This was one of the Canaanite city states which fell to the Israelites. The king of Gezer came to the aid of the king of Lachish in his fight against Israel’s army. Yehoshua wiped out the city (Yehoshua 10:33).
We got to learn about the letters sent from the king of Gezer to the Emperor of Egypt begging for help against the advancing Hapiru, or Hebrews.
We got to see around this complex and huge ancient city. We saw it’s old fortifications.
We saw it’s water system and descended into the bat-ridden deep well system.
Pharaoh king of Egypt had come up and captured Gezer; he destroyed it by fire, killed the Canaanites who dwelt in the town, and gave it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. So Solomon fortified Gezer, lower Beth-horon, Baalith, and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land [of Judah]
I Melachim 9:16-18
We got to walk around the entire Tel and learn about it’s rebuilding under King Shlomo, who received it as a wedding gift from his father in law, the king of Egypt. We learn that, as is described in I Melachim 9:15, that he chose to fortify Gezer, Hazor and Megiddo. Each of them have the same gatehouses which have pottery dating back to the 10th century BCE. The gatehouse is the unique style of the Israelite gatehouse with six chambers.
We got to read a letter in ancient Hebrew from an Israelite who lived in the city of Gezer describing his crop cycle.
Finally, we got to see an area with pillars and basin or altar, dating back the Canaanite period. Many assume this is an area of some form of pagan rite.
One who sees a place from which idolatry was eradicated recites: Blessed…Who eradicated idolatry from our land.
Mishna, Brachos 9:1
As such, we learned the Mishna in Brachos which talks about seeing a place where pagan worship was removed and the special bracha said upon seeing that place. We took the opportunity to say that bracha on this site.