According to tourist Israel the city is thought to have seen more battles than any other location in the world. Fortified cities were built upon the 10 acre summit of Megiddo Hill rising 21.33 meters above the valley.
At its prime Megiddo was ruled by King Solomon in the 10th century BC and visitors can see the remains of Solomon’s Gate (photos below) and what is believed to have been his stables.

A deep trench (above photo) was cut by the archaeologists in order to explore the different layers of Tel Megiddo. There are a total of 26 distinct layers of the city - starting from the Neolithic period (8300-4500 BC) on the hill's bedrock, up to the last layer of the Persian period (586-332BC). Each layer raised the height of the ground, thus increasing the height of the Tel from period to period.  ​
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An Iron Age underground waterworks system from the 10th century is evident with a 30 meter deep shaft and 70 meter long tunnel.  This was built to protect the water supply from an army laying siege to the city. A large pit (photo LL) with 183 stairs leads down 36M to the 70M tunnel (photo LR) that connected the city to the spring under the bedrock.  See photos below.

God placed Israel at the centre of the nations.  He intended Israel to be a kingdom of priests. He told them about his intentions shortly after they had gone out of the land of Egypt.
On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.  Exodus 19:1,5-6 (ESV)

They were to take a mediatory role among the nations. However, Israel’s central position among the nations proved to be a double-edged sword. As world powers would travel through the land on the Via Maris, one of two things would occur:

• God’s people would either influence the nations for the Lord.
• The nations would influence Israel toward idolatry.

Any student of the bible knows that the latter happened.  God’s people were swayed by the very nations God intended them to influence.  Here is God’s lament about this. 
“Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. Ezekiel 5:5-10 (ESV)

​TAKEAWAY
OUR LOCATION IS NO ACCIDENT
God has placed us where we are for His sovereign, deliberate purposes. We have our own Via Maris.  Tel Megiddo and this highway remind us of our own opportunities and challenges.
We cannot even imagine what opportunities God’s providence has prepared for us today: Whom will we meet?   Where will we go?

We need to ask ourself:  Who is influencing whom?

============================================================ADDENDUM: FACTS CONCERNING MEGIDDO

• Arabic name - “Governor’s Hill”
• Guarded the Megiddo Pass
• Place of the dividing line of the Via Maris

                  a. The break to the north went to Tyre, Sidon, Baalbek and Ugarit
                  b. The road east went to Damascus

• The king was killed by Joshua - Joshua 12:21
• Given to the tribe of Manasseh - Joshua 17:11; I Chronicles 7:29
• The Canaanites retained control - Joshua 17:12; Judges 1:27
• In the Fifth Solomonic District - I Kings 4:12
• One of the three fortified cities of Solomon - I Kings 9:15
• Here Ahaziah died after being smitten by Jehu - II Kings 9:27
• Josiah killed - II Kings 23:29-30; II Chronicles 35:22-24; Zechariah 12:11
• It will serve as the main area for the gathering grounds of the allies of the Antichrist in the Campaign of Armageddon - Revelation 16:12-16

Here at Caesarea Maritima we received the first glimpse of this paradoxical historical figure. After his introduction, I felt compelled to ask, “What made Herod build a harbour and city that would grow to have an estimated population of 125,000 despite the availability of water, food supply, natural fortifications and proximity to a main road?” 
Aron shook his shoulders and said, “Who knows? Can anyone really understand who Herod was? Can anyone comprehend how that tortured creative mind worked and what compelled him to build all that he did?
Then he went on to tell us how Herod overcame each of the lacking components.
The water problem was solved by an aqueduct built by the Sixth and Tenth Legions to bring water from the Shuni Springs 7.5 km north at the base of Mount Carmel.

The hippodrome was also the location of one of Herod’s last, and most cruel acts when he ordered that one person in every family should be slain so that the whole kingdom would be forced to mourn at the occasion of his death.

The Jewish historian Josephus records:
He commanded that all the principal men of the entire Jewish nation wheresoever they lived, should be called to him.
Accordingly, there were a great number that came, because the whole nation was called, and all men heard of this call, and death was the penalty of such as should despise the letters that were sent to call them.
And now the king was in a wild rage against them all, the innocent as well as those that had afforded him ground for accusations.
And when they were come, he ordered them all to be shut up in the hippodrome, and sent for his sister Salome, and her husband Alexas, and spoke thus to them:—“I shall die in a little time . . . but what principally troubles me is this, that I shall die without being lamented, and without such mourning as men usually expect at a king’s death.” . . . .
He took care, when he was departing out of this life, that the whole nation should be put into mourning, and indeed made desolate of their dearest kindred, when he gave order that one out of every family should be slain, although they had done nothing that was unjust, or against him, nor were they accused of any other crimes [Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 17:6:5-6].

​Small wonder that some have described him as a “a total moral monster!”
Archaeologists have found prison cells in Herod’s praetorium (palace).  They are located underneath the grill seen in the picture below. It seems that Paul spent at least two years of his life in Herod’s Palace and he may have been in these cells. 
He (Felix) said, “I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive.” And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod's praetorium. Acts 23:35 (ESV)
The palace, theatre and Hippodrome are in close proximity to each other.  We only walked a few minutes to get from one to the other.  Undoubtedly, at times, sounds of the chariot races and the crowds’ responses would have drifted to his cell. 

To the pagan mind, the cave and spring water at Caesarea Philippi created a gate to the underworld, where fertility gods lived during the winter. They believed that their city was literally at the gates of the underworld, the gates of hell. The pagans of Jesus' day commonly believed that their fertility gods lived in the underworld during the winter and returned to earth each spring. They saw water as a symbol of the underworld and thought that their gods traveled to and from that world through caves.

​In order to entice the return of their god, Pan, each year, the people of Caesarea Philippi engaged in horrible deeds, including prostitution and sexual interaction between humans and goats. ​

Since Caesarea Philippi was like a red-light district in the world of the disciples, the disciples may very well have been shocked to be brought to this area since devout Jews would have avoided any contact with the despicable acts committed there. Standing at what pagans considered a literal "Gate of Hades," the disciples may have been amazed at Jesus' statement to Peter.. They had studied under their rabbi for several years, and now he was commissioning them to a huge task: to attack evil, and to build the church on the very places that were most filled with moral corruption. Yet it was here in this pagan setting that Christ was to present a clear challenge and statement of power.  The church of Jesus Christ would be a church that would be capable of overcoming the worst evils. The church was not to hide from evil but confront it.
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Sitting in this location, I thought of how different these words would have sounded in Jerusalem or the Galilee where the population was primarily Jewish. The impact of the church on pagan culture would have been lost.  As well, the church would have been seen  as Jewish in nature. But here, the church was clearly presented as a solution for a pagan world. Christ brought his disciples here so that his words would have maximum impact. The church was for all people - Jews and Gentiles.