Etymology
Kiryat Gat is named for Gath, one of the five major cities of the Philistines. In Hebrew, "gat" means "press". In the 1950s, archaeologists found ruins at a nearby tell which were mistaken for the Philistine city of Gath. The real Gath was later discovered thirteen kilometers to the northeast at Tel es-Safi. Gath was the hometown of the biblical giant Goliath the Gittite.
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