Ramat Rachel is located on one of the highest mountains surrounding Jerusalem, halfway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem next to the ancient Mountain Trail (today - highway 60). The place was uninhabited until the mid-8 th century BCE. Toward the end of the 8 th century, the Kingdom of Judah built an administrative center and a military post to protect Jerusalem. The stronghold destroyed by the Assyrian King Sennacherib in 701 BCE. During the 7 th century BCE, a magnificent palace was rebuilt as the main Judah administration center of the Assyrian ruler. Since after, the Ramat Rachel palace served as an administrative center for the Assyrians, Babylons, Persians, and Greeks empires for about 600 years. The Hasmoneans who perceive Ramat Rachel as a symbol of foreign domination demolished the palace to the ground. For the following 1000 years, Ramat Rachel exists as a Jewish village, then Roman, Byzantine, and Muslim. The place had been abandoned for the next 1000 years until 1926 when it was settled by Jewish people, as Kibbutz Ramat Rachel. Today, in the Ramat Rachel archaeology park, you can see the magnificent palace, part Judahite and part Persian. You can also see the Jewish village (early Roman period), the Roman farmhouse, and the Byzantine basilica-type church. From Ramat Rachel, you can have a good view of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and an impressive panorama of the Judean Desert. Ramat Rachel archaeology park is historically unique. In my opinion, there is no better place to understand the attributes of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and the role of the ruling empires throughout the first millennium BCE.