Wikipedia's first sentence called it “ancient city in the land of israel”. Today it says “capital city of the northern kingdom of israel between c”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Ancient city of Israel”. It now reads “Capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025
Capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel This article is about the ancient Israelite city. Samaria ( Hebrew : שֹׁמְרוֹן Šōmrōn ; Akkadian : 𒊓𒈨𒊑𒈾 Samerina ; Greek : Σαμάρεια Samareia ; Arabic : السامرة as-Sāmira ) was the capital city of the Kingdom of Israel between c. 880 BCE and c. 720 BCE . It is the namesake of Samaria , a historical region bounded by Judea to the south and by Galilee to the north. After the Assyrian conquest of Israel , Samaria was annexed by the Neo-Assyrian Empire and continued as an administrative centre. It retained this status in the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Achaemenid Persian Empire before being destroyed during the Wars of Alexander the Great . Later, under the hegemony of the Roman Republic and the subsequent Roman Empire , the city was rebuilt and expanded by the Jewish king Herod the Great , who also fortified it and renamed it " Sebastia " in honour of the Roman emperor Augustus . The ancient city's hill is where the modern Palestinian village , retaining the Roman-era name Sebastia, is situated. The local archeological site is jointly administered by Israel and the Palestinian Authority , and is located on the hill's eastern slope. The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (1 ed.). "The Urban Renovation of Samaria–Sebaste of the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE: Observations on some architectural artefacts" .
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1295382945.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Samaria ( Shomron ; ; as-Samira ) was an ancient city in the Land of Israel . It was the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th and 8th centuries BC. The ruins of the city are located in the Samaria mountains of the West Bank and are under the jurisdiction of the Israel National Parks Authority .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 664149636.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Ancient city of Israel Samaria ( , Shomron ; , Samareia ; , as-Samira ) was an ancient city in Israel . It was the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th and 8th centuries BC. The ruins of the city are located in the Samaria mountains of the Israel , almost 10 km to the northwest of Nablus .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 962252936.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 3 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Iron-Age city and biblical capital This article focuses mainly on the Iron-Age city.Towards the end of the 8th century BCE, possibly in 722 BCE, Samaria was captured by the Neo-Assyrian Empire and became an administrative center under Assyrian, Babylonian , and Persian rule.During the early Roman period, the city was expanded and fortified by Herod the Great , who renamed it " Sebastia " in honor of emperor Augustus .The ancient city's hill is where the modern Palestinian village of Sebastia , which retains its Roman name, is located.The archeological site , subject to a shared Israeli–Palestinian control, is located on the hill's eastern slope.The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (1 ed.)."The Urban Renovation of Samaria–Sebaste of the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE: Observations on some architectural artefacts" .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1178737892.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “ancient city in the land of israel”. Today it says “capital city of the northern kingdom of israel between c”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Ancient city of Israel”. It now reads “Capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel”. Read the current article and compare.
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2015, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
ancient city in the land of israel
Now
capital city of the northern kingdom of israel between c
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
