Tel Nagila, Archaeological site in Southern District, Israel

Tel Nagila is a mound on a hill on the western bank of Nahal Shikma, between Route 40 and Kibbutz Ruchama. Its main remains are from the Middle Bronze Age II, including a rampart with a retaining wall and gate, and a later building with thick walls. A lone tamarisk tree stood on the summit until it fell in a storm on 12 March 2020.

Tel Nagila was excavated in 1962 by Ruth Amiran and Avraham Eitan, who were searching for the Philistine city of Gath; after two seasons they concluded it was not Gath. The main finds were from Middle Bronze Age II (stratum VII), when the Egyptian 18th Dynasty ruled the area: residential buildings, an earth rampart with a retaining wall and a gate. The settlement was destroyed and soon rebuilt (stratum VI), with a thick-walled building and a floor holding a two-toned cooking pot from Late Bronze Age I. A nearby Iron Age II village and a Mamluk structure on the summit were also found.

The Hebrew name comes from the Arabic Tel al-Najila, "hill of the grass"; a lone tamarisk stood on the summit until a storm felled it on 12 March 2020. The tell is visible from Route 40 south of Beersheba, and a blue-marked kurkar track from the Pura reserve leads to it.

Access is by a kurkar dirt road leaving the Pura reserve, marked with a blue trail marker. The tell stands between Route 40 and Kibbutz Ruchama, and a lone tamarisk once stood on its summit until it fell in a storm on 12 March 2020. The top gives a view over the surrounding farmland.

A lone tamarisk tree stood on the mound for years and was visible from Route 40; it fell in a storm on 12 March 2020. The Ottoman army built a 105 cm-gauge railway to Beersalem in 1915, and the remains of its bridge over Nahal Shikma can still be seen near the tell.