What is…
Tel-melah

also known as: Tel Melach

Hebrew: תֵּל מֶלַח —transliteration: tel melah —meaning: hill of salt / Tel (or tēl) meanins a mound, heap, or ruined hill (often referring to ancient city mounds or tells in the Near East, where successive layers of settlement create elevated ruins). Melah (or melaḥ) means salt.

This is a place in Babylon from which the Jews returned. It is not a prominent prophetic or narrative “hill.”

During the Babylonian exile (586–538 BCE), many Jews were settled in various Babylonian towns and districts.

The following came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan and Immer, but they could not show that their families were descended from Israel. —Ezra 2:59; compare Nehemiah 7:61

In context, these verses in Ezra 2 describe a group of Jewish exiles (or their descendants) returning to Jerusalem and Judah after the Babylonian captivity (following the decrees of Cyrus the Great around 538 BCE). Some families from Tel-melah, along with nearby places like Tel-harsha (“mound of the forest” or “hill of wood”), could not prove their Israelite lineage through genealogical records. As a result, they were excluded from certain priestly duties until a priest could consult the Urim and Thummim (sacred lots) for divine clarification (Ezra 2:62-63).

Location

Scholars and Bible commentators generally locate Tel-melah in Babylonia (southern Mesopotamia, in modern-day Iraq), likely in the low-lying salt tracts or marshy regions near the Persian Gulf. This area was known for its saline soil, marshes, and salt deposits, which could naturally form or be associated with “salt hills” or mounds.

Ancient Babylonia had extensive salt flats and evaporative salt production, especially in the southern regions where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers met the gulf, creating marshlands.

Some identifications link it to sites mentioned by the ancient geographer Ptolemy (e.g., “Thelme” or similar), placed in the salt tract near the Persian Gulf.

So far, no definitive archaeological excavation has pinpointed Tel-melah with certainty, as it was likely a smaller settlement or district rather than a major city.