Ir-shemesh

Ir-shemesh ("city of the sun") was a town in the tribal inheritance of Dan named in Joshua 19:41 in the catalog of the Danite allotment: "And the coast of their inheritance was Zorah, and Eshtaol, and Ir-shemesh." The town is widely identified with the better-known Beth-shemesh on the northern border of Judah and Dan — the two names probably referring to the same site under different traditions. The site is the famous Tel Beth-shemesh (Tel er-Rumeileh) in the Sorek Valley, where the Ark of the Covenant was returned by the Philistines.