{{Short description|Bronze Age archaeological site in Palestine}} {{Infobox ancient site | name = Tell Ali Muntar | alternate_name = Ali Montar,{{sfn|Green|Henry|2021|p=175}} Tell Muntar, Tell Al-Muntar | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | map_type = Palestine Gaza#Palestine Gaza Strip#Palestine | map_alt = | altitude_m = | altitude_ref = | coordinates = {{Coord|type:landmark_region:PS|qid=Q135068146|format=dms|display=inline,title}} | map_dot_label = | location = [[Palestine]] | region = | type = | area = {{circa|{{convert|100|m2}}}} | built = | abandoned = | epochs = [[History of the ancient Levant#Bronze Age|Bronze Age]] | cultures = | occupants = | discovered = | excavations = | archaeologists = | management = }} '''Tell Ali Muntar''', also known as '''Tell al-Muntar''', is a [[tell (archaeology)|tell]] (a mound created by accumulation of remains) at an elevation of {{convert|270|ft|m}} [[Above mean sea level|above sea level]], the highest elevation is the area, some {{convert|2|km|sigfig=1}} south-east of [[Gaza City]] in [[Palestine]]. The ancient site is thought to have been occupied in the [[Middle Bronze Age]], about the 2nd millennium BCE,{{sfn|Clarke|Sadeq|2004|pp=35-36}} covering an estimated area of {{convert|100|m2}}.

Tradition holds it as the place where [[Samson]] brought down the city gates of the [[Philistines]]. The hill is crowned by a Muslim [[shrine]] (''[[Maqam (shrine)|maqam]]'') dedicated to Ali al-Muntar. There are old Muslim graves around the surrounding trees,{{sfn|Briggs|1918|p=258}} and the lintel of the doorway of the ''maqam'' has two medieval Arabic scriptures.<ref name="STF-J">{{cite web |url=http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/mad/discussion/123discuss.html |title=Gaza – (Gaza, al -'Azzah) |date=19 December 2000 |publisher=Studium Biblicum Franciscanum&nbsp;– Jerusalem |access-date=16 February 2009 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120728115614/http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/mad/discussion/123discuss.html |archive-date=28 July 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Tell Ali Muntar was surveyed in 1998 as part of the Gaza Research Project, but it has not been excavated. The archaeologists discovered mud bricks from buildings and pottery that ranged from the Middle Bronze Age to the [[Ottoman Palestine|Ottoman period]].{{sfn|Clarke|Sadeq|2004|pp=35-36}} It is likely that Tell Ali Muntar was occupied at the same time as the Bronze Age settlement of Tell Gaza; archaeologists Joanna Clarke and [[Louise Steel (archaeologist)|Louise Steel]] suggest that settlement may have shifted from Tell Muntar to Tell Gaza.{{sfn|Clarke|Steel|1999|pp=222, 226}} [[UNESCO]] has verified that more than 150 [[Destruction of cultural heritage during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip|heritage sites have been damaged]] as a result of the [[Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip]] starting in 2023, including Tell Ali Muntar.<ref>Listed as "Tell Al-Muntar". {{harvnb|UNESCO|2026}}</ref>

== Bronze Age sites near Gaza == *[[Al-Moghraqa]] *Tell Gaza *[[Tell el-Ajjul]] *[[Tell es-Sakan]] *[[Deir al-Balah]] *Tall Rīdān<!--Q31247712--> *[[Tell es-Sanam]]

== See also == {{Portal|Palestine }} * [[List of archaeological sites in the Gaza Strip]]

== References == {{reflist}}

== Bibliography == {{refbegin|indent=yes}} *{{cite book |last=Briggs |first=Martin Shaw |title=Through Egypt in War-time |year=1918 |location=London |publisher=T. Fisher Unwin Ltd. |url=https://archive.org/details/throughegyptinw00briggoog/page/n326/mode/2up}} *{{citation |last1=Clarke |first1=Joanna |last2=Sadeq |first2=Moain |title=Gaza Research Project: 1998 Survey of the Old City of Gaza |year=2004 |journal=Levant |volume=36 |pages=31–36 |doi=10.1179/lev.2004.36.1.31}} *{{citation |last1=Clarke |first1=Joanna |last2=Steel |first2=Louise |title=Demographic patterns and differential settlement in the Bronze Age landscape of Palestine |work=The landscape of Palestine: equivocal poetry |year=1999 |pages=211–231 |url=https://fada.birzeit.edu/bitstream/20.500.11889/4685/1/The%20landscape%20of%20Palestine%20%20equivocal%20poetry.pdf |hdl=20.500.11889/4685 |hdl-access=free}} *{{Cite book |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctv18msqnb |title=Olga Tufnell’s 'Perfect Journey': Letters and photographs of an archaeologist in the Levant and Mediterranean |date=2021 |publisher=UCL Press |isbn=978-1-78735-906-2 |editor-last=Green |editor-first=John D.M. |doi=10.2307/j.ctv18msqnb.14 |editor-last2=Henry |editor-first2=Ros}} *{{citation |author=UNESCO |date=25 March 2026 |title=Gaza Strip: Damage assessment |url=https://www.unesco.org/en/gaza/assessment |access-date=24 March 2026 |website=UNESCO}} {{refend}}

== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20250728081659/https://palarchive.org/index.php/Detail/objects/305839/view/pdf/export_format/_pdf_ca_objects_summary/lang/en_US Photograph of Tell Ali Muntar], 1987 – via the [[Wayback Machine]]

{{Authority control}} {{Gaza Governorate}}

[[Category:History of Palestine (region)]] [[Category:Archaeological sites in the Gaza Strip]] [[Category:Archaeology of the Near East]] [[Category:Bronze Age sites in Palestine]] [[Category:Populated places established in the 2nd millennium BC]] [[Category:Populated places disestablished in the 2nd millennium BC]]