Adoraim

Adoraim (later Adora) was one of fifteen towns Rehoboam fortified after the kingdom split (2 Chronicles 11:9), listed in the western group with Lachish, Azekah, Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron. The defensive ring protected Jerusalem's southern and western approaches — a threat that materialized just five years later when Pharaoh Shishak swept up through these very towns. The city sits in the western foothills 8 km west of Hebron on the watershed between coastal plain and hill country. In the Hellenistic period it became a major Idumean centre that John Hyrcanus captured and forcibly converted to Judaism. The site is identified with modern Dura.