The cities built on their mounds: In the ancient Near East, it was common practice to rebuild cities on the same sites after they had been destroyed. All the elements that made a city site advantageous remained after a city’s destruction. Many cities were rebuilt many times. Each time a city was destroyed, debris piled up. Over time, the city slowly rose higher as this debris accumulated.
Joshua burned only Hazor in the north, just as he had destroyed Jericho and Ai in the center of the land (6:24; 8:28).