Jerusalem's city walls

DEBKAfile - 07/09/08



The discovery of large sections of the city’s southern wall from the times of the Hasmonean kings is a major contribution to the knowledge of Jerusalem, marking out the city’s full extent during its heyday as the thriving center of Jewish pilgrimage from all parts of the ancient world.

This wall was knocked down when the Romans razed Jerusalem and the Second Jewish Temple in the year 70 C.E. The sections preserved are about 3 meters high and may prove to be some of the finest and most complete examples of Second Temple architecture to have survived.

The team of archeologists headed by Yehiel Singer of the Israeli Antiquities Department also uncovered a later city wall – almost in the same spot on Mt. Zion. It was built by the Christian Byzantine Empire (324-640 C.E)  DEBKAile...

Meanwhile an earlier report (Nov. 2007) stated:

The remnants of a wall from the time of the prophet Nehemiah have been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, strengthening recent claims that King David's palace has been found at the site, an Israeli archeologist said.

The section of the 2,500-year-old Nehemiah wall, located just outside the Dung Gate and the Old City walls facing the Mount of Olives, was dated by pottery found during a recent dig at the site, said Hebrew University archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar. Jerusalem Post....

Mount Moriah The present Temple Mount is currently dominated by the Islamic Dome of the Rock and El Aksa mosquebut is believed to be the location of Abraham's offer of Isaac as a sacrifice. A thousand years later, King David purchased the site from Araunah the Jebusite as a location for the first temple built by David's son King Solomon.

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