TheAyalon Valley (Hebrew:אַיָּלוֹן orאיילון,ʾAyyālōn), also writtenAijalon andAjalon, is a valley in the lowland of theShephelah inIsrael.
The Ayalon Valley has been an important route connecting thecoastal plain andJerusalem for generations. Due to its location, several battles were fought in its vicinity. TheHebrew Bible gives the valley its name from Ayalon, a city that theTribe of Dan possessed before their migration to the north. In the modern period, ancient Ayalon was identified with the former village ofYalo at the base of theBethoron pass, which preserved the ancient, biblical name.[1]
Today, the Ayalon Valley is home to severalkibbutzim andmoshavim, includingSha'alvim,Mishmar Ayalon,Nahshon, andKfar Bin Nun. The valley is also home toCanada Park, anational park, theYad La-Shiryon (Armored Corps Museum),Mini Israel, theLatrun Monastery andEmmaus Nicopolis, anarcheological site commonly identified withEmmaus of theNew Testament.
In theTell el-Amarna letters, written during the last twelve years of PharaohAkhenaten and the first regnal year ofTutankhamun (14th century BCE),Abdi-Heba speaks of the destruction of the "city of Ajalon" by the invaders,[2] and describes himself as "afflicted, greatly afflicted" by the calamities that had come on the land, urging the king ofEgypt to hasten to his help. This event may have been connected to an attack of theAmorites, before the arrival of the Israelites under Joshua. But since the valley stretches as far to the west as to a point halfway betweenSha'alvim andLatrun, the city referenced in these letters may have been any settlement in the valley.
Ajalon is mentioned in the accounts of an invasion of Canaan by the Egyptian kingSheshonk I of Egypt in the 10th century BCE.[3]
The Valley of Ayalon was first mentioned in theBook of Joshua as whereJoshua defeated fiveAmorite kings. Following his midnight march to rescue the city ofGibeon from the coalition led by the King ofJebus (Jerusalem), Joshua pursued the coalition eastward, down through the descent of Beth-horon, and then southward across the Valley of Ajalon. To allow theIsraelites to complete the rout before nightfall, Joshua asked the Lord to lengthen the day by uttering the command: "Sun, stand thou still onGibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon".Joshua 10:11–14 records that God cooperated with Joshua's request.
Following the conquest, the city of Ajalon was apportioned to theTribe of Dan (Joshua 19:42) and was designated as one of theLevitical cities given to theKohathites (Joshua 21:24 and1 Chronicles 6:69). In spite of Joshua's initial victory in the Valley of Ajalon, the Amorites continued to live in the city of Ajalon (Judges 1:34–35). ConstantPhilistine pressure to control the valleys of theShephelah forced the tribe of Dan to retreat westward, reducing the extent of their territory. Eventually, the Danites abandoned their initial inheritance in the Aijalon area and moved to the extreme northern part of Israel, settling in the city of Laish, which they renamedDan (Judges 18).
The location was also the site of a great victory over thePhilistines by KingSaul and his sonJonathan. After a daring attack by Jonathan on the Philistine garrison atMichmash, they pursued the Philistines to Aijalon, a distance of fifteen miles (1 Samuel 14:31). In later years, Aijalon was inhabited by Ephraimites and Benjamites (1 Chronicles 6:69 and1 Chronicles 8:13).
After the kingdom divided, Ajalon became the boundary between the kingdoms ofJudah andIsrael.Rehoboam, the first king of Judah, fortified the city of Aijalon, supplying officers, weapons and food provisions (2 Chronicles 11:5–12).
Ajalon's identification withYalo was made byEdward Robinson during his travels inPalestine in 1838. Using the works ofJerome andEusebius of Caesarea, who describe Aijalon as being twoRoman miles fromNicopolis, while also drawing upon descriptions of Aijalon in theOld Testament and noting the philological similarities between the Arabic name and its Hebrew root, Robinson concluded that the Yalo was indeed Aijalon.[4]
Canada Park,[5]Yad La-Shiryon,[6] theInternational Center for the Study of Bird Migration[7] and the Latrun Monastery[8] are located in the Ayalon Valley.
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