Kh. Ra'i Detail

Kh. Ra

View looking southwest at the side of Khirbet al–Ra'i.  Josef Garfinkel's excavations are visible in the center of the image (= Area B).

The road in the foreground is in the Lachish Valley and leads from Lachish (1.5 miles to the left of Ra'i) to Ashqelon in the Philistine Plain.

In a one hour Lanier Theological Library lecture, Searching for the Historical King David: Khirbet Qeiyafa and Khirbet al–Ra'i, Yosef Garfinkel describes Kh. al–Ra'i for 4 minutes, beginning at the 49th minute.  He describes the site and provides helpful photos and labeled ones as well.  According to Garfinkel, it was inhabited in the 11th, 10th, 8th, 7th centuries and later.