Battle For Mount Carmel | Did the story of Elijah and the prophets of baal really happen?

Battle For Mount Carmel | Did the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal really happen? I love this story, it has some of the funniest lines in the bible. Its also a story of the underdog battling a bully and winning. However there is an underlying element that I think, yeah this is a great story, but did it happen. Did Elijah really do this or did he have some trickery/ some slight of hand. there are 3 sides to this coin. I know what your saying how can a coin have 3 sides. That might seem confusing, but in essence this 3 sided coin is the main problem. so let's go over some back story and then it will be easier to explain if it even happened The first side of the coin and leading bully's are King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. King Ahab is one of the Kings of Israel. We have King David and his son King Solomon. After King Solomon died it got very game of thrones and the people were divided between the Kingdom of the North and the Kingdom of the South. King Ahab was the 7th in line of the North and has the reputation of being one of the most evil. This reputation is helped along by his Queen, Jezebel who even to this day her name is used as a derogatory term. Queen Jezebel wanted there to be just one side of the coin with Baal worship, so is having the Priests of the God of Israel put to death Enter the second side of the coin and the underdog, Elijah. Elijah is a prophet and follower of God and his ways. 3 years previous he declared to King Ahab that there was going to be a drought because of his worshipping other gods and since then it has only been drought. King Ahab is now taking his live stock for the whole kingdom searching for a patch of ground that could feed them. I would even say that the drought is so severe that the King himself is doing this work and not just leaving it to his servants. Apart from war not much gets a King off his royal throne, but here he is doing the grunt work to save his Kingdom. Which brings us to the 3rd side of the coin. There are the people that follow God and follow other gods like Baal or Ba al at the same time. King Ahab was one of those people. He should have been just worshipping God but he also let the worship of Baal happen as well. while King Ahab is trying to rescue his livestock he meets up with Elijah and gives him a few choice words for bringing the drought onto the kingdom. Elijah spins it back on King Ahab and sets up a challenge to declare once and for all that the side of the coin that everyone should be worshipping is the God of Israel and to gather up the priest of Baal and even the priests that hang around Queen Jezebel worshipping Ashe-rah. This makes a total of 950 priests of Baal etc and one lonely Elijah. So the battle of Mt Carmel begins. He stated lets both build a alter with an offering on it and without putting a fire under and without intervention asking their god to light the fire. Just to put a bit of an edge to this, Elijah states who fails is put to death. This has now got the interest of the people and there would have been a massive crowd. The priest of Baal tried all day and ended in frustration, exhausted and bloody as they had cut themselves in desperation to get Baal to light the fire. This is where all the comedy starts with Elijah doing a stand-up routine and I quote. 27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or travelling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.