Joshua 11:7 - 11      "At that time Joshua turned back and captured
                                           Hazor and put its king to the sword. (Hazor had been
                                           the head of all these kingdoms.) Everyone in it they
                                           put to the sword. They totally destroyed them, not
                                           sparing anything that breathed, and he burned up
                                           Hazor itself."

      In this way, the Bible tells of the destruction of one of the greatest cities in the Jordan Valley. But, did the city actually fall violently to the Israelites at the end of the Bronze Age?  The Bible is the only document in history that makes mention of the fall of Hazor, so any comparisons that could be made is out of the question. Therefore, we only have archaeology to look to for answers.
      In the magazine Biblical Archaeology Review  May/June 1999 vol 25. no. 3 p. 22 - 39, they discuss the the fate of the city and any possible culprits.
      "A fierce conflagration marked the end of Canaanite Hazor.",  so states the article right from the start.  It goes on to tell of the damage sustainted by the city......a city-wide layer of ash and charred wood, sometimes as much as 3 feet thick, attests to the intensity of the destructive fire.  Basalt rock slabs were cracked from intense heat in one of the palaces and clay vessels were found simply melted where they stood.
       Large rock statues of Canaanite deities were found chiseled and marred. Some of the statues were even found with their heads and arms still laying on the ground behind them.....the chisel marks clearly ringing the necks and heads.
        Would it be possible that the Israelites could have done this?
        The magazine places the time of the destruction in the late Bronze Age or from the 15th to the 13th century BC. Which as you recall from my page on the Exodus, was the exact time the Hebrews left Egypt and conquered Canaan. The last official record of the exsistance of Hazor is by the Egyptian Pharoah Seti I (1291 - 1278 BC) in an account of conquest against the Canaanite  cities in about 1290 BC as well as being mentioned in the Amarnu letters of the Pharoah Akhenaten in the 14th century BC.
        Joshua 11 : 13  "Yet Israel did not burn any of the cities built on their
                                    mounds - except Hazor, which Joshua burned."
        The Bibles seems to give us a problem here since the evidence from the region tells us that all of the Late Bronze Age cities in Canaan have evidence of firey deaths. Only Hazor has a level of charring and ash that makes the other cities look like matches next to a bonfire. So therefore, the Bible and the Israelites must have had the memory of this intense blaze imprinted on their minds as to only recall Hazor's fire specifically.
        The aforementioned magazine looks at the evidence and asks who are the most likely to have done this large scale destruction? They mention 4 groups that could have put Hazor to the torch......
1) The Sea Peoples - Hazor is situated far from the coast and would not give   any stratigic value to the Sea Peoples, also they are not known to ever have attacked this far inland.
2) The Egyptians AND/OR 3) Other Canaanite Cities -  The mutilation of both Canaanite and Egyptian gods' statues would be unthinkable to either of these groups because they shared the same gods. So if they angered Hazor's gods, then they would be angering their own as well.
4) The Israelites - these are the only ones who seem to be able to attack and destroy Hazor in the Late Bronze Age. Also, the Hebrews are known to destroy and mutilate Canaanite gods when in a uproar.

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