Jerusalem: History, Archaeology and Apologetic Proof of Scripture

Galyn Wiemers

Jerusalem: History, Archaeology and Apologetic Proof of Scripture

Galyn Wiemers

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Abstract
AI

The paper examines the historical, archaeological, and theological significance of Jerusalem as depicted in biblical texts. It discusses the ancient history of Jerusalem, particularly its conquest by the Israelites and its strategic significance due to natural defenses. Theological insights are drawn from biblical prophecies regarding the future of Jerusalem and its role in God's plan, culminating in the anticipation of a new Temple and the return of Jesus the Messiah. Ultimately, this analysis aims to provide apologetic proof supporting the significance of Jerusalem in Scripture.

Figures (502)

The city David took from the Jebusites in 1005 BC was about 10 acres in size with a population of about 2,000 Section A: Introduction to Jerusalem Jerusalem in 1000 BC The first mention of Jerusalem in the Bible is found in Genesis 14:18 in the account of Abram’s encounter with Melchizedek, the king of Salem (that is, Jerusalem):

Above is Solomon's city in 940 BC after he included 22 more acres to the north of the City of David. The population was about 5,000 at this time.

Hezekiah's city expanded to the west over the Centra Valley on up to the Western Hill. The total area of the walled city was about 125 acres with an estimated population of 25,000.

By the time of the first Jewish revolt in 66 AD and the Roman destruction of the city, Jerusalem had a population of 80,000 inside walls that enclosed approximately 450 acres.

Although it took Herod until 37 BC to fight his way into Jerusalem and take possession of the throne, he loved the city and its architecture. The days of Herod’s rule (the Herodian Age) began the greatest period of construction Jerusalem had ever seen. His projects in Jerusalem included paved streets with underground sewers, the palace complex in the citadel with luxury apartments in the towers called Phasael and Mariamne, fountains, baths, Fort Antonia, a Greek theater and the Hippodrome. He also continued work on the city walls. Herod greatly expanded the size of the Temple Mount and also remodeled the Temple itself. Jerusalem at the time of Jesus was about 230 acres with a population of around 40,000. Notice the site of the crucifixion was outside the city walls in 30 AD. By 41 AD Herod Agrippa II had expanded the walls to the northwest.

Hadrian renamed Jerusalem "Aelia Capitolina" after the Jew's second revolt against Rome in 130-135, and rebuilt it as a Roman city. Jews were forbidden entrance into the city except once a year to mourn thei fallen Temple.

Emperor Hadrian decided to turn Jerusalem into a Roman city and called it Aelia Capitolina. Hadrian’s

Roman towns were laid out with two main roads crossing in the center. One road, called the decumanus, ran east to west and a second road, called the cardo, ran north to south. The place where they intersected would include the market. In Aelia Capitolina the decumanus ran from the Three Towers (Phasael, by today’s Jaffa Gate) straight to the Temple Mount where it turned north before it continued east out the Lions, or Stephen’s, Gate. The cardo, or the north-south road, ran from the main north gate (Damascus Gate today) to Mount Zion in the south. This cardo with its pavement, street, curb, sidewalk, pillars and storefronts can still be seen today. The Roman Tenth Legion had been stationed in Jerusalem since 70 AD. They spent 65 years camped on the western hill near the Jaffa gate and the Citadel. A Roman pillar still stands in that area with an inscription left by the Tenth Legion. Archaeological evidence indicates that after the Bar Kokhba Revolt they may have moved to or extended their camp to include the Temple Mount.

This is Jerusalem from the time of the Bordeaux Pilgrim's visit from Gaul in 333 until the Muslim invasion of 638. The Bordeaux Pilgrim's written account of his visit is traced with the dotted line beginning on the east side, just outside the Temple Mount.

The walls built by the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Great in 1537 still stand today. Notice that Mount Zion and the City of David to the south are outside the walls. This can be confusing to people today because the original city of Jerusalem that David conquered is not inside the walls of today’s Old City of Jerusalem.

A view of the Christian Quarter from the roof of the Petra Hotel. The Old City and its walls, quarters, streets and sites today.

A view of the Jewish Quarter’s new buildings and landscaping that sits above the excavated Cardo Street of the ancient Romans. The Christian Quarter is the most visited quarter of the Old City because it includes the site of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection—the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This quarter is cluttered with a seemingly endless cluster of churches and holy sites whose roofs, domes and facades are built so close together that they are undistinguishable. The streets are filled with narrow storefronts leading into shops that continue in long narrow paths to the back. The market streets are noisy with modern pilgrims and shopkeepers trying to lure them into their stores.

The nation of Armenia was the first to declare itself a Christian nation. They did this in 301, even before the days of Constantine, when the Armenian area was established on Mount Zion. Armenians had been living in Jerusalem since 95 BC. Right before the Crusader period (1099-1187 AD) began, the Armenian Quarter started to develop. It reached its current size during the Ottoman period (1517-1917). Today the Armenian “quarter” covers about one-sixth of the Old City. Although the Armenians are one of the smallest ethnic groups in the city they are proud of their 1700 year- old Christian heritage and are friendly, hospitable and fluent in English.

An Armenian woman hand paints the ceramics created in her father's local shop.

The Bazaar on El-Wad Street just inside the Damascus Gate, which can be seen in the background at the end of the street.

The village of Silwan on the east side of the Kidron Valley as seen from the west side in the City of David.

The Golden Gate in the east wall of the Old City. Jerusalem's current walls were built under the orders of Suleiman the Magnificent between the years 1537 and 1541. Some portions were built over the ancient walls from 2,000 years ago. The walls were built to prevent invasions from local tribes and to discourage another crusade by Christians from Europe. They even withstood artillery fire during the war of 1948. The walls of the Old City are 40 feet high and 3.8 km or 2.36 miles around. The Ottoman Turkish sultan had wanted the walls to enclose the southern City of David also, but the architects failed to include Mount Zion or the City of David. As a result, Suleiman had the architects beheaded. There are eight gates in the city walls today: Jaffa Gate, New Gate, Damascus Gate, Herod Gate, Lions Gate, Golden (Eastern) Gate, Dung Gate and Zion Gate. The Old City is divided into four quarters: Armenian, Jewish, Muslim and Christian. The enclosed area is called "The Old City.” The modern city of Jerusalem is much larger and includes a wider variety of business and residential areas than the Old City.

This is the inside view of the window in the wall above. Notice it is narrow on the outside to hinder incoming arrows, but wide on the inside to allow the archer to shoot from a wider range of angles at the enemy below on the outside of the wall.

The archer's view from the inside looking down into the Kidron Valley with the Mount of Olives in the background.

Arrows and bullets were fired from these loopholes, or arrow loops, which are narrow vertical windows in the wall. The second architect of the city walls executed by Suleiman. They lost their lives but Suleiman honored their work by burying them inside the Jaffa Gate.

The two graves of Suleiman’s architects who failed to include Mount Zion and the old City of David within the walls. Suleiman decapitated the men and buried them just inside the Jaffa Gate.

A machicolation, typical of castles and fortifications ot the Middle Ages, where hot oil or rocks were droppea on the invading enemy below.

This is the west wall of the Old City by Jaffa Gate. Jaffa Gate is on the right side of the photo with an opening into the "L" shaped entry just around the corner to the left.

This is a Turkish, or Ottoman, Tower built by Suleiman. Notice the outcropping of the bedrock under the tower. The walls had to be built on solid bedrock and in many places this bedrock can be seen above the service of the ground. Each period that built or rebuilt the walls tended to follow the same wall line on the bedrock.

Herod the Great's palace would have stood on the other side of this wall inside the city. Jesus would have been brought here for his trial before Herod Antipas in 30 AD. Suleiman's wall from 1535 AD is built along the same line as the Hasmonean (Maccabees’) wall from 160 BC, which was reinforced in the same location by Herod in 20 BC.

Details of archaeological finds visible along the west wall of the Old City from the Citadel to the southwest corner.

Herodian stones mark a west gate entrance into Herod's city by his palace from 20 BC. The top step of a wide staircase can be seen in the middle of the photo. The steps can be seen when viewed from the other direction. West Jerusalem and the beautiful modern King David Hotel is visible in the distance on the other side of the Hinnom Valley.

This is part of the Herodian wall built in 20 BC.

Looking south along the west wall of the Old City from the Citadel. The Hinnom Valley is on the right.

The north wall near the Damascus Gate. There are three gates in the north wall: New Gate, Damascus Gate and Heroa’s Gate.

This is the south wall of the Old City looking east. The south wall has two gates: Zion Gate and Dung Gate.

that very gate when he enters Jerusalem. The Muslim graves were put here because this is where they believe the resurrection will take place and where the judgment of mankind will occur. Jewish graves are also located in this area on the other side of the Kidron Valley on the Mount of Olives since they also believe the final judaqment will be executed here by their Messiah. The east wall of the Old City contains the Golden Gate and the Lions Gate. This particular gate is the Golden Gate. The Temple Mount sits on the other side of this gate and this wall faces the Kidron Valley and the Mount of Olives. The Golden Gate was sealed by the Muslims in order to discourage the Jews’ hope for the return of their Messiah, who is supposed to walk througt

These are Herodian residences (3) along the outside of today’s south wall of the Old City. This is the southeast corner of the Nea Church (2) with the south wall of the Old City built over the top of its previous remains.

The Herodian Aqueduct (1) flows to the east of the above photo. The Herodian Aqueduct (1) on the south wall.

These Mikvahs (6), or ritual baths, are from the time of the Second Temple and were built by Herod.

A medieval tower (7) sits by the south wall of the Old City with the Byzantine paving stones still visible. The Dung Gate is to the right (east) of this photo. A medieval tower sits just west of the Dung Gate, east of the mikvah on the south wall. There is a gate called the Tanners’ Postern Gate because the cattle market was located on the inside and provided cow hides for the tanneries outside. The Byzantine street pavement can still be seen. It extends under the wall and continues down to the Pool of Siloam.

This road runs right beside the Jaffa Gate, (which sits directly to the left of the road).

A local resident is selling bread from his cart by the L-shaped Jaffa Gate entrance. Suleiman’s original walls had six gates: Damascus Gate, Herod’s Gate, Stephen’s Gate, Dung Gate, Zion Gate and Jappa Gate. The gates were all designed and built to have an L-shaped entry instead of a straight line of entry. Taking this sharp ninety degree turn would have slowed down an invading army in the final moments of a siege. The “L” turns have been removed from Stephen’s Gate and the Dung Gate to better facilitate modern traffic but can still be seen in the other four gates.

The scars from artillery fire in 1948 still mark the Zion Gate. Bullet damage from the fight between Arabs and Israeli forces for the Jewish Quarter during the war in 1948 can still be seen in the Zion Gate. The Zion Gate and the Jaffa Gate were closed from 1948 to 1967 when the Jordanians (Arabs) maintained control of the Old City. They closed the gates because they faced West Jerusalem, which was controlled by Israel.

A group of Israeli soldiers huddle inside the Zion Gate. The Zion Gate sits on Mount Zion. The Arabic name is Bab Nabi Daud, or “the Gate of the Prophet David” because the Crusaders and other early Christians misidentified the location of David’s tomb. David was not buried on Mount Zion, but in the City of David, probably on the Ophel outside the northern walls of the city at that time:

The view looking into the Dung Gate toward the Western Wall entrance. This gate was widened in 1953 by the Jordanians in order to move traffic in and out of the Old City. The arch at the top of the gate shows the original width of the gate that was originally used for pedestrians.

The Golden Gate as viewed from the Mount of Olives looking over the Kidron Valley. In the year 1969 Jerusalem archaeologist James Fleming was investigating the Eastern wall of the Temple where a Muslim cemetery has long been located. It had rained heavily the night before and the ground remained soggy the next day. As he investigated the area immediately in front of the Golden Gate, the ground beneath his feet gave way and he dropped into a hole about eight feet deep. Fleming found himself "knee-deep in bones" and became suddenly aware he had fallen into a mass burial site. To him, the most amazing aspect of this incident was his clear view of five large wedge- shaped stones set into a massive arch. It appeared he had discovered an ancient gate under the present Golden Gate: "Then | noticed with astonishment that on the eastern face of the turret wall, directly beneath the Golden Gate itself, were five wedge- shaped stones neatly set in a massive arch spanning the turret wall. Here were the remains of an earlier gate to Jerusalem, below the Golden Gate, one that Josephus states (Wars V, 184-189) that the Eastern temple enclosure wall was the only one not rebuilt by Herod the Great. The ancient gate beneath the Golden Gate may therefore date from Solomonic times or at least from the time of Nehemiah. Such a view of consistent with Asher Kaufman's view that the First and Second Temples were located 110 meters North of the Dome of the Rock in the immediate vicinity of the small Dome of the Tablets shrine on the main temple platform. (by Lambert Dolphin at http://Awww.templemount.org/visittemp.html) (Two different photos of the ancient gate below the present Golden Gate taken by James Fleming after he had fallen in the grave in front of the Golden Gate in 1969 may be seen online at these two locations: http://members.bibarch.org/image.asp?PubID=BSBA& Volume=348&lssue=02&lmagelD=01621&SourcePage= publication.asp&UserlD=08& and http://www.welcometohosanna.com/JERUSALEM _ TOIIR/iarirealamnice/qnidanhelow aif)

The Lions Gate in the east wall of the Old City. Originally, the Lions Gate was an L-shaped gate that required a person to enter and turn left. The back wall of the gate was removed by the British in order to allow traffic to enter the Old City. The original arch and remaining part of the gate can still be seen to the left inside the gate. Today’s Eastern Gate is also Known as the Golden Gate, because it was associated with the Beautiful Gate on the Temple Mount mentioned in scripture. When Jerome translated the Greek New Testament into Latin beginning in 386 AD, he translated the Greek word oraia (“beautiful”) into Latin using the Latin word aurea, which means “golden.” Thus, the Eastern Gate, which was associated with the Temple and prophecy, came into our English language known as the Golden Gate instead of the Beautiful Gate.

A closer view of one of the four lions at the Lions Gate. There are two animals on each side of the gate that have been called lions, but may actually be leopards or panthers. These were the emblem of the Mamluk sultan the Ottoman Empire who was defeated in 1517, twenty years before the walls and gates were built. Even though the lion is a symbol of Jerusalem and Judah, it is also possible that these lions were placed here to honor the Mameluk Sultan Baibars (1123-1277). Baibars defeated the Crusaders, conquered the Middle East and was known as “The Lion of Egypt and Syria.”

Details of one pair of “lions” on the top right side of the Lions Gate from 1537.

A section of the original L-shaped gate bears the inscription above the entrance on the south side. This Arabic inscription credits the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who reigned from 1520-1566, with having built the walls and the gates around Jerusalem. The inscription also names Suleiman’s father Salim Khan and gives him the title “conqueror of the Holy Land.” This inscription is dated in the Muslim year 945 which would be 1538-1539.

Although it was called the “Flowered Gate” (Bab ez- Zahr) because of the flower on the tower wall above it, Christians in the 1500s believed they had located Herod Antipas’ palace just inside this gate. The building was actually a Mamluk house, and Herod’s palace was in the Citadel on the west wall of the city just south of the Jaffa Gate. The opening we see today was actually cut into the front of the gate in 1875 by the Ottoman Empire. Originally the gate was entered from the east (left) through a small door in a larger door (wicket gate) which was rarely opened. The road leading to this gate cuts through a 2000-year-old aqueduct, which can still be seen on the west (right) side of this gate by locating the aqueduct’s covering stones.

Herod's Gate, or the Flower Gate, sits in the north wall of the Old City.

The Damascus Gate is the most elegant of the Old Cit gates.

A smaller pedestrian entrance (seen in this photo) is located below and to the east (left) of the Damascus Gate. This pedestrian gate and its tower date from the time of Herod Agrippa I’s expansion of the city walls to the north and west in 41-44 AD. He built a larger gate and this smaller gate at this location. The main walls and gate were destroyed by Hadrian in 135 AD, but this smaller pedestrian gate, its tower and molding on the lower half of the gate and the molding along the base of the tower still remain from Herod Agrippa I’s original work in 41 AD. The arch and capping stone are from Hadrian’s restoration in 135 AD. Capitolina at this location. It was then called the Nea Gate, or New Gate.

The New Gate was built into the wall in 1887.

An archaeological dig in 2007 next to the Western Wall under the ramp that leads up to the Morocco Gate

A shaft below the Western Wall tunnels that was used to explore the archaeological layers of the City of Jerusalem. Despite the destruction of historical evidence by archaeological terrorism, much of Jerusalem remains unexcavated because areas of interest lie under residences, holy sites or the Temple Mount itself. The many discoveries made have been fairly recent considering the long 2,000-year history of the city. Today, archaeological breakthroughs are occurring at a more rapid pace and are being processed more accurately than ever before. The historical reliability of the Scriptures continues to be reinforced through archaeology. Each discovery helps us read the pages of the Bible with a greater level of insight and understanding.

Remains of debris and stones on the Temple Mount from construction.

This photo is taken from the surface of the Temple Mount at the top of the new staircase looking south. This staircase leads to an entrance into "Solomon's Stables” which the Muslims have now claimed to be a mosque. The east wall of the Temple Mount is to the left in this photo.

Construction blocks can still be seen on the Temple Mount. The new stairway can be seen in the background in the top right of this photo.

Topography and elevation of Jerusalem as viewed from the south. Today’s “Mount Zion” sits on the Western Ridge (Western Hill) and the City of David sits on the Old Ancient Core called the Eastern Ridge (Eastern Hill). The original city of the Jebusites, which became the City of David, is located on a ridge south of Mount Moriah known as the Old Ancient Core. This ridge of rock (also called the Eastern Ridge) which became the city of Melchizedek, the Jebusites and David was lower than Mount Moriah to the north, lower than the larger Western Hill to the west, and lower and smaller than the Mount of Olives to the east. Yet, it was here on the western edge of the Kidron Valley, on the Old Ancient Core, that Jerusalem was settled. This particular location was chosen because it has the largest water source in the area. Water was continually supplied to this area through the gushing of the Gihon Springs located along the eastern ridge of the Kidron Valley. Jerusalem’s original location was not chosen because of its proximity to major roads. In fact, it is far from the international highways of the coastal plain and Transjordan. The closest major roads in Old Testament times were located a half mile to the west (the souther Ridge Route) and more than five miles to the north (running from Gezer to Jericho).

Jerusalem has three valleys: Hinnom, Central and Kidron. There are three ridges or hills: Western Hill (with Mt. Zion), Eastern Hill (with Mt. Moriah) and the Mount of Olives.

Looking from the south, this is a view of the Old Ancient Core (the Eastern Hill) in the center of the photo, outside today’s city walls. The steep Kidron Valley can be seen to the right of the Old Ancient Core. The Dome of the Rock (located on the Most Holy Place on Mount Moriah) can be seen higher up the Eastern Hill inside the city walls. The Central Valley has been filled in for 2,500 years, but the rise of the Western Hill can be seen on the lef edge of the photo. The southern wall of today’s Old City can be seen climbing up the Western Hill.

The view standing in the Kidron Valley looking south. The Mount of Olives is to the left and the Temple Mount i. to the right at the top of Mount Moriah.

Looking down into the steep Kidron Valley from the City of David located on the Eastern Hill or the Old Ancient Core.

Then it ran up the Valley of Ben Hinnom along the southern slope of the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem). From there it climbed to the top of the hill west of the Hinnom Valley at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim. - Joshua 15:8 Figure 1 - Today the Hinnom Valley is covered with green grass. This photo was taken on the west side of the Mount of Olives near the southwest corner of the Old City walls. An Arab family is resting in the shade of a tree while their children play in the Hinnom Valley.

Looking down into the Hinnom Valley from Jerusalem. When God spoke through Isaiah of the coming judgment he also spoke of “the burner”:

Looking south down the Hinnom Valley in the evening outside the Joppa Gate and the west wall of the city. The Citadel can be seen in the top left corner of this photo. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell (or, in the Greek, “Gehenna’). - James 3:6

Tombs from the time of the New Testament in the southern end of the Hinnom Valley. Herod’s family tomb is located in this area, although Herod’s tomb was uncovered at the Herodium in April of 2007. The slopes of the Hinnom Valley were used for tombs by the wealthiest Jewish families in the first century. Josephus says the tomb of Annas the high priest is located in this area and such a monument has been identified. There are more than 30 tombs cut and excavated in the lower southern side of the Hinnom Valley by a monastery dedicated to Saint Onuphrius.

A view looking east at the first and second summits of the Mount of Olives. The Garden of Gethsemane is on the left, in the middle of the photo above the road. The Kidron Valley runs parallel to the bottom of the photo. Details of several of Jesus’ activities on the Mount of Olives are recorded in the gospels. This has led to numerous churches being built on these “holy” sites from the time of the Byzantine Empire in the early days of the church.

The three summits of the Mount of Olives can be seen. The glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it. - Ezekiel 11:2: Considering 1) the support of Old Testament prophecy, 2) the confirmation of Jesus by his ascension, and 3) the words of the angels, it is clear that Jesus, the Messiah, will return to the Mount of Olives and enter the new Temple in Jerusalem.

The third summit is covered with Jewish Graves because of verses like Zechariah 14:4 and Ezekiel 43:1-2 that indicate the Messiah will appear on the Mount of Olives.

The top bedrock of Mount Moriah just outside the Dome of the Rock. This is part of the same bedrock where the Ark of the Covenant sat in Solomon's Temple on Mount Moriah. The bedrock in this photo is covered by the Muslim’s Dome of the Spirits about 285 feet north of the location where the Ark of the Covenant sat in the Most Holy Place. King David said to Ornan, “No, but | will buy them for the full price. | will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David paid Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site. And David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings. - 1 Chronicles 21:24, 25 Mount Moriah is a ridge of rock that rises from the junction point of the Hinnom and Kidron valleys. It rises through the City of David and reaches its highest elevation just northeast of the Damascus Gate in the Old City. The Temple Mount today covers about 45 acres and is built around the outcropping of the bedrock under the Dome of the Rock. It is about 118 feet lower than the highest point of Mount Moriah.

The Stepped Stone Structure at what is believed to be the location of the Jebusite Wall. This photo includes 1) a glacis, a steep sloped wall for protection, which is called the Millo in 2 Samuel 5:9 from 1100-1000 BC 2) remains of residences from 1200 BC 3) retaining walls from 1200 BC 4) rooms used from 700-586 BC 5) walls built by Nehemiah. The Millo is part of the City of David. It is the rampart built by the Jebusites before David conquered the city. The Millo consists of the terraces and retaining walls on the eastern slope of the southeastern spur

A massive stepped podium for the Canaanite-Jebusite palace/fortress that was also used as David’s palace. Eilat Mazar dates the building of this structure from the period of 1200-1000 BC. This Stepped Stone Structure was the work of the Jebusites during the days of the Judges, and the work of David around 1000 BC.

The House of Ahiel. This four-room house was built into and over the Millo around 650 BC in the days of young Josiah and Jeremiah. The staircase to the left (seen in photos below) would have provided access to the home’s flat roof. A stone with a hole in it was found in a corner of the small room. This stone is the toilet seat that sat over a cesspit about 6.5 feet deep.

Diagram detailing the Stepped Stone Structure

A view looking down at the sloped wall built by the Jebusites and reinforced by David, which served as a protective wall (glacis) but also as a terraced support system called the Millo in scripture. The straight wall with the right-angled corner in the background is from the days of Nehemiah. The remains between the Jebusite wall and Nehemiah’s wall are the ruins of the ribs of retaining walls from the 1200s BC designed to hold fill. Just in front of them is the beginning of rooms dating from 700-586 BC.

The stairs to access the roof of the House of Ahiel can be seen on the left in this photo. (Photo from 2007, with the back right pillar leaning in the corner.)

This toilet seat sat in the corner of the small room in the House of Ahiel. This would have provided the four- room home with a bathroom.

The Stepped-Stone Structure with the house of Ahiel cut into it and the toilet seat. The Burnt Room is to the right of the toilet. Evidence of the Babylonian fire of 586 BC and the charred remains of imported wood, a roof beam, pottery, stone vessels and a metal spoon from that time were found here.

This is a view of the deep drop down into the Kidron Valley from the base of the Stepped Stone Structure. Imagine David and Joab looking up at the Jebusites who were on top of the Stepped Stone Structure and understanding what they meant when they said, “You will never get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off’ (2 Samuel 5:6). With this sort of natural and constructed defensive system, it’s no wonder they said what they did. David ordered Joab to use the water system from the Gihon Springs further down this ridge to enter the city.

The vertical shaft seen above, known today as Warren’s Shaft, was used by the Jebusites to get water from a reservoir located below the city. The water from the Gihon Springs filled the reservoir. Joab followed David's advice and led a division of soldiers up this shaft and into the city of Jebus, or Jerusalem, around the year 996 BC.

These three water systems continued to bring water to the city of Jerusalem until the days of the Hasmoneans and Herod. During the last century BC and the first century AD, aqueducts were built to transfer water into Jerusalem from the southern hill country of Judea from around Hebron and Bethlehem.

This is a view of one of the two towers in the Gihor Tower excavation in 2007, looking from the Kidron Valley toward the city wall. Details of the water system and the City of David.

The "natural cave" shown in the diagram above that was blocked. This photo shows it from the inside.

from the ground level, walking down a steep, stepped tunnel, then using a ladder to descend a nine-foot scarp drop to arrive in the inclined tunnel. The entrance to this water system was within the city walls, while the Gihon Springs were outside the walls.

Artist's conception in 2010 of the Gihon Springs Towers

Looking down on the remains of the Gihon Towers that extend toward the Kidron Valley and enclose the Gihon Springs for protection. Artist's conception in 2007 of the Gihon Springs Towers Excavation of the Gihon Springs and the Gihon Towers

This photo was taken from the same location in the Gihon Tower in 2010. Excavation has made some progress by discovering a walkway along the top of a wall in the Gihon Towers. (See images below to compare the progress of the excavation.)

This channel is called the Canaanite Tunnel. It is 394 fee long and takes about 10 minutes to walk through today.

Straight ahead to Hezekiah’s Tunnel (701 BC). Turn left to enter the Canaanite Tunnel (1200 BC or earlier) cut before the time of David.

Early Jerusalem labeled and viewed from the Mount of Olives to the east. Notice the Stepped Stone Structure (Millo).

A detailed image of the Stepped Stone Structure with the stronghold/fortress and palace of David on the top inside. The Gihon Springs and their protective towers are below in the Kidron Valley.

Mount Moriah to the north of the walls of the City of David. This northern portion of the eastern ridge would be purchased by David from a Jebusite, and Solomon would build the Temple here.

Inside the Large Stone Structure that sits on top of the Stepped Stone Structure. This Large Stone Structure has been identified as the palace of David. The pottery uncovered here indicates it was not built until the time of David, around 1000 BC. This is a view from David’s palace looking down into the Kidron Valley. The Mount of Olives and its three summits can be seen to the right running along the Kidron Valley. The southeast corner of the Temple Mount can be seen on the left edge of the photo.

Looking along a wall of David’s palace toward the east. Standing inside David's palace looking at the excavated walls. It is worth noting that David’s palace was new construction in his day. The Jebusites’ former fortress that he had taken was left standing. David moved into that Jebusite fortress after his conquest of Jerusalem and lived there until his palace was built:

Inside David’s palace, also known as the Large Stone Structure, on the top of the Stepped Stone Structure. This Jebusite fortress would have sat to the south of the new palace, guarding the northern wall of the old Jebusite city. This means David’s palace would have originally been built outside the walls of the city on the north. David’s palace was beautiful and luxurious, but when the Philistines invaded the land to assassinate him he returned to the protection of the old fortress within the walls of the city:

Looking at the wall at the top of the Stepped Stone Structure from David's palace.

Looking down from the top of the Stepped Stone Structure from David's palace. Notice how far down the Kidron Valley is. The House of Ahiel can also be seen near the middle of the photo. David would be able to see the roof of this house and many others from his palace. To the far right of this photo we can see a portion of the wall built by Nehemiah. The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem also and took it. They put the city to the sword and set it on fire. - Judges 1:8

The walls of David's palace in the northwestern part of the excavation area looking west.

This is a diagram of the Temple Mount comparing the size of Solomon’s 500 cubit square platform with the two later phases of extension. The first phase was in the days of the Hasmoneans who extended the Temple Mount to the south; it is identified by a bend in the eastern wall were they began adding on. The second took place in 19 BC by Herod who extended it even further to the south of the Hasmonean extension but also extended it to the west and the north. In all, Herod doubled the size of the Temple Mount.

Notice how the top of the rugged Mount Moriah, which is the northern portion of the eastern ridge, was made into a large level surface. Solomon first built a 500 cubit square retaining wall around the high point of Mount Moriah. Then the area inside that square was filled in. The high point of bedrock that was left exposed was where the Ark of the Covenant sat and was the area that supported the Temple itself.

On the Temple Mount today a portion of the top course of cut stone that was in the line of the west wall of Solomon’s Temple can be seen, although Solomon’s Temple was destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonians. Then beginning in 19 BC Herod the Great added additional retaining walls and fill to double the size of the Temple Mount surface which buried any of Solomon’s outside retaining walls that remained. Today the Muslims have a raised platform that sits on the Temple Mount platform. This platform can be seen in the diagram above with the Dome of the Rock sitting on it. The stairs in the photo and in the bottom left corner (northwest) of the Muslim platform in the diagram are not perpendicular with the platform. Notice all the other staircases are perpendicular to the Muslim platform. Why are the northwest stairs at a different angle than the platform? There is a course of stones at the base of this northwest (bottom left) staircase whose top can be seen. These stones begin the angled staircase and instead running parallel with the Muslim platform, they preserve a former line of the west wall of Solomon’s 500 cubit square Temple Mount surface. The details of this information was collected and connected by Leen Ritmeyer who has assembled a very insightful and solid

Walls built by Solomon north of David's Palace of Cedar (2 Samuel 5:11) and Solomon's Palace of the Forest of Lebanon (1 Kings 7:2), on the Ophel just south of the Temple Mount on Mount Moriah. King Solomon would have built his royal palace north of his father David’s palace further up the Ophel. This would later be called the “upper house of the king” by Nehemiah 3:25. The city wall would have been expanded north. This is that wall. A section of a wall built in Solomon's day around 950 BC was found south of the Temple Mount on the Ophel. The remains of the excavated wall are 19.6 feet high and 230 feet long. Found along with the portion of Solomon’s wall were a gatehouse that led into the royal district of the city. The gate is built in the typical style used by Solomon and his builders at Megiddo, Beersheba and Ashdod, with four symmetrical rooms, two on each side of the passageway through the gate. A 78 by 59 foot tower in the wall overlooking the Kidron

These are Solomon's walls built to extend the city to the north around his Palace of the Forest of Lebanon around the year 950. Solomon began to reign in 970. He spent 7 years building the Temple and 13 years building his palace. At the end of these 20 years of building (950 BC), Solomon would have closed up the gap in the north wall that was created by all of his construction work. These are the walls he built. He built the throne hall, the Hall of Justice, where he was to judge, and he covered it with cedar from floor to ceiling. And the palace in which he was to live, set farther back, was similar in design. Solomon also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had married. He made a colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty wide. In front of it was a portico, and in front of that were pillars and an overhanging roof.

The entrance to Solomon’s Quarries built by Suleiman in 1535 is under the north wall of the Old City, and sits on the rock escarpment of Mount Moriah. Solomon’s Quarries are also known as Zedekiah’s Cave or Zedekiah’s Grotto.

The stone ashlars were taken from this quarry. The straight cuts and grooves of the square blocks that were removed can still be seen.

Galyn stands in Solomon’s Quarries where stones for the Temple were taken. This quarry leads to many tunnels that run under the Old City and the Temple Mount. This quarry is located under Mount Moriah. The area open for visitors today is just north of the Temple Mount about 30 feet beneath the Muslim Quarter in the Old City. There is a system of tunnels and caves used by the Jewish priests of the Old and New Testament to move about under the Temple Mount. The quarry is about 330 feet wide and 650 feet deep.

Toni walks deeper into the maze of caverns in the quarry that extends to a width of 330 feet.

Chisel marks can be seen in the walls and ceilings, while chipped pieces remain in piles on the ground.

A section where the walls and ceiling show signs of the removed ashlars.

Bedrock in the quarry that has been left in place.

The Broad Wall (721 BC, Assyrian Destruction of north Israel) A section of the Broad Wall built by Hezekiah around 721 BC to the west of the Temple Mount and the City of David. This wall was built over the Central Valley and up onto the Western Hill to enclose homes in the part of the city that expanded when the Assyrians invaded Israel to the north. Many people from the northern kingdom of Israel fled their country and moved into Judah and Jerusalem in order to escape the Assyrian invasion. Hezekiah protected them with this wall. The remains of the wall in this photo measure 22 feet wide and 213 feet long.

Toni ready to enter Hezekiah's Tunnel and the knee deep water with her flashlight. Hezekiah’s Tunnel (701 BC, Assyrian Invasion of Judah)

Water moving along the floor through the 1/3 mile tunnel This tunnel was discovered by Edward Robinson in 1838 and was cleared by Montague Parker’s team during the years 1909-1911. The water had continued flowing through this tunnel for 2,000 years. In fact, before its rediscovery, people thought the water in the area of the Pool of Siloam came from its own spring. It was not until later that people realized the water in the Pool of Siloam is actually water from the Gihon Springs over a third of a mile away. Water still flows naturally from the Gihon Springs today through Hezekiah’s Tunnel and to the Pool of Siloam.

The pick marks of Hezekiah’s workers are still visible on the rock walls and ceiling of this 1,750 foot tunnel. The tunnel ceiling is only 5 feet high at the entrance, but reaches 16 feet toward the end, near the Pool of Siloam. The water is generally knee deep at the beginning but only to mid calf throughout the rest of the tunnel. At times the water in the tunnel can be chest deep, depending on the circumstances.

Detail of the ceiling that begins at about 5 feet high anc ends a third of a mile later at 16 feet. Notice the pick marks of Hezekiah's men that can still be seen in the bedrock under the City of David. Detail of a portion of the right side of the tunnel wall.

A nice photo of the tunnel clearly showing the pick marks, the sharp corners where the walls and ceiling meet, and the fresh moving, cool water on the floor of the tunnel which comes above the ankles to mid-calf.

Toward the end of the tunnel the ceiling reaches 16 feet high.

Here the tunnels weaves to the right. Galyn Wiemers in Hezekiah's Tunnel

Stairs leading out of Hezekiah’s Tunnel to an open channel, through which the water flows into the Pool of Siloam.

[...when] (the tunnel) was driven through. And this was the way in which it was cut through: While [. . . ] (were) still [. . . ] axes, each man toward his fellow, and while there were still three cubits to be cut through, [there was heard] the voice of a man calling to his fellows, for there was an overlap in the rock on the right [and on the left]. And when the tunnel was driven through, the quarrymen hewed (the rock), each man toward his fellow, axe against axe; and the water flowed from the spring toward the reservoii for 1200 cubits, and the height of the rock above the heads of the quarrymen was 100 cubits. - Siloam Inscription, engraved in 701 BC

Toni points to the place where an inscription etched in the rock wall by Hezekiah's men was found in 1880. It is called the Siloam Inscription and was engraved in 701 BC. It describes how two teams of workers cut the tunnel, each coming from opposite ends, and when they met the water began to flow.

A view of the open channel from the exit of Hezekiah’s Tunnel. The Pool of Siloam is just a few feet on the other side of the gate that is seen at the end of the channel. Until 2005, the channel was identified as the Pool of Siloam, but in 2005 the actual Pool of Siloam was uncovered accidentally by a city crew working on the public sewer system. Today this water flows on toward that pool.

A view of the open channel at the end of Hezekiah’s Tunnel. This channel flows into the Pool of Siloam. The circular, or cylinder, remains of pillars are from a Byzantine church built on this site that was called the Siloam Church.

The area outside this gate, which suffered a great fire around that time, was littered with Babylonian and Israelite arrowheads.

Nehemiah’s Wall (445 BC, Exiles Return to Rebuild Temple and City) A portion of the wall Nehemiah built in 445 BC. A portion of this wall was rebuilt by the Hasmoneans. This is located on the east side of the City of David below the palace and next to the Jebusite’s Stepped Stone Structure.

We can see four things in the remains of this wall, which is located in the northern part of the Jewish Quarter: 1) It was part of the gate system that protected the western section of the city on the north wall. The entrance to the city is on the right of this photo; 2) The remains of the wall built by the Hasmoneans around 150 BC can be seen in the stones at the bottom of the photo; 3) To the left and down, the stones form a straight seam which divides the wall into two sections — right and left, or west and east. The left section was the base of a tower that guarded the gate; 4) The column and its base, seen on the top of the wall, are from the Byzantine street called the Roman Cardo from 140 AD. Many of these Roman columns and much of the paved Cardo street can still be seen running through the Jewish Quarter.

This diagram shows the location of Hasmonean wall remains that are found in the line of the old First Wall. This wall line ran from the Tower of Mariamme to the east, including the portion of the wall in the photos below. It reached the Western Wall of the Temple Mount.

Looking from the top down on this same section of wall. Here we can see the entrance to the city through the opening/gate in the bottom right of the photo, and the Roman Cardo column built over the wall 300 years later.

The Hasmonean wall in the Citadel continues south under the present west wall of the city. It continues to arch to the east (left in photo) and its remains can be seen again in the Jewish Quarter today near the Broad Wall in the Cardo (as seen in the photos above).

The rocks of the Hasmonean tower to the left (west) of the gate.

A view of the west city wall of the Old City. The Hasmonean work mentioned in the caption of the Citadel photo above continues south of the Citadel, and is visible in the lower stones of the wall on the right and left sides of the tower. The tower itself was also built by the Hasmoneans and restored by Suleiman in 1535. The Hasmonean stones can be seen in this tower setting on the bedrock to the height of eleven courses of ashlars. The Hasmonean stones have margins cut around the edges and rough boss in the middle of each block. The Hasmoneans carved this same look into the bedrock (seen behind the horse at the bottom middle of the photo) to create an appearance of stone work to match the stones they used to build the tower above.

A close-up of the Hasmonean ashlar stones in the wesi wall of the Old City. Notice the margins cut smooth around the edges and the rough boss in the middle decorating the face of each block.

The arch and vaulted ceiling built by Hadrian over the Hasmonean water reservoirs. These pools of water, which are accessed through the Western Wall Tunnels, are located at the northwest corner of Herod’s Temple Mount. They were open reservoirs in the days of the Hasmoneans and connected to the aqueduct. The water was used as a moat on the north side of Fort Antonia in Herod’s day. In 135 AD, Hadrian built arched supports and vaults over these pools and used them as cisterns with a marketplace built over the tops of the arched vaults on the street level above.

The Hasmonean aqueduct cut into the bedrock in 150 BC is located north of the northwest corner of the Temple Mount. It brought water into the city from the pools located in the area. In 19 BC, Herod expanded the Temple Mount northward to include this area. At that time, the aqueduct was cut into, and the water was redirected. The walls and floor of this aqueduct have been worn smooth by water.

Remains of the southernmost walls of the Acra, which still extend south of the southern Temple Mount wall between the large stairway leading up to the Double and Triple Gates. The Acra was the Seleucid stronghold built in 186 BC against the south wall of Solomon’s Temple Mount on the Ophel. It was used as a military post against the Jewish people who lived to the south and west, and to monitor Temple Mount activities between the years of 186-141 BC. At that time the Acra was torn down, and the Temple Mount was extended to the south to cover it up in 141 BC. Two tunnels with staircases were added during this southern extension to increase access to the Temple Mount surface. These tunnels would be extended and accessed by Herod’s Double and Triple Gates later.

Hasmonean Temple Mount Extension This is a photo of the east wall of the Temple Mount. The straight seam (visible in the center of the photo, from the bottom of the wall up through the first six courses of the stones) is at the south end of the east wall. In the right half of this photo (from the straight seam to the right edge) are stones from the Hasmonean addition to the Temple Mount wall. The second extension to the left (south) of the Hasmonean extension was done by Herod beginning in 19 BC. These southern additions covered up most of the remains of the Seleucid fortress called the Acra.

Three tombs are visible in this photo taken from the eastern wall of the Temple Mount. 1) To the left is a tomb with two Doric columns identified as belonging to a family of priests by an inscription inside the tomb that mentions the "sons of Hezir”; 2) In the middle is a tomb known as Zechariah’s Tomb (about 30 people in the Bible are called Zechariah); 3) To the far right, south of "Zechariah’s Tomb,” is an unfinished tomb cut in the rock. Since the Jews would not bury their dead inside the city walls, Jerusalem is surrounded by tombs. There are tombs to the west in the Hinnom Valley, tombs to the south where the Hinnom and Kidron Valleys meet, tombs to the north of today’s Old City walls and, of course, tombs to the east in the Kidron Valley where the Messiah is to appear to raise the dead, judge mankind and enter his Temple on Mount Moriah. During the days of the Hasmoneans, Hellenistic culture influenced the building of elaborate tombs, and this practice continued into the days of the New Testament. Eight hundred tombs from the time of Herod have been discovered within a 3 mile radius around the city. Jesus was buried in a tomb that was being cut for a Sanhedrin member outside the city walls to the west.

Here is a close up of the tomb belonging to a family of priests named Bene Hezir (or, sons of Hezir). 1 Chronicles 34:1 and 15 mention a priest named Hezir from the line of Aaron serving in the days of David. An inscription written i Hebrew found on the tomb says: This is the tomb and the monument of Alexander, Hanniah, Yo’ezer, Judah, Simon, Johanan, the sons of Joseph son of Oved. Joseph and Eliezer sons of Hanniah — priests of the Hezir family. The inscription mentions a monument that may have been located to the left of the tomb entrance on the wall.

This tomb, known as Zechariah's Tomb, was cut during the life of Jesus.

This tomb is further south under the village of Silwan and is known as the Tomb of Pharaoh's Daughter. This tomb was cut during, or right after, the Hasmonean age but is unidentified. Originally this tomb, which looks like a small house, was topped with a pyramid roof cut from a single rock. Sometime after 700 AD the pyramid roof was cut up into blocks to be reused. The process caused great damage to the tomb. More damage was caused by a hermit who used this tomb as a home. There was an ancient Hebrew inscription in the upper left corner of the entrance, but now only two letters remain. The rest of the inscription was destroyed when the hermit widened the doorwav.

This tomb ts just a iittie further north of the three previously mentioned tombs in the Kidron Valley. It was constructed during Jesus’ lifetime. Today it is traditionally called the Pillar of Absalom or Absalom’s Monument. The Bordeaux Pilgrim referred to it as the Tomb of Hezekiah in 333 AD. It was first associated with Absalom by Benjamin of Tudela in 1170 because of 2 Samuel 18:18. The actual person or family for whom this tomb was prepared is unknown. The architectural style includes both Egyptian and Greek influences, which would have come from the two kingdoms that dominated Judea between 300-100 BC. The Egyptian influence came from the Ptolemys of Egypt, and the Hellenistic style from the Seleucids, who were Greeks ruling in Syria. The lower square is cut from the bedrock. It is topped with a finely-cut circular stone with a conical top that was cut from one single stone. Directly to the left of this tomb is an eight-chambered catacomb with well-preserved carved stone. The catacomb is called the Cave of Jehoshaphat. The Pillar of Absalom may have been a monument for the burial chambers in the Cave of Jehoshaphat, cut into the cliff behind it. There are two inscriptions in this monument. A two-line inscription above the door is from around 400 AD that says: “This is the tomb of Zachary, martyr, most holy priest, father of John the Baptist.” A later inscription can be seen to the right of the door but only the word “simon’ can be made out. Neither inscription is historically valuable or accurate.

Detail snowing the tignt joints of these Heroaian asniar stones found in the tunnel along the Western Wall. The ashlars were stacked on top of each other with surfaces cut to a perfect match. No mortar, cement or adhesive was used to attach the ashlar blocks to each other. They still stand after 2,000 years, but the fact that they were not attached to each other with mortar makes it easier to understand how the Romans dismantled the Temple. When Jesus spoke of the Temple he said, “not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down” (Matthew 24:2). These stones remain from the very base of the Temple Mount wall. Notice that each course of ashlars was set back % inch to help stabilize the wall. They were not stacked evenly. Also notice the smooth-cut 2 inch margin around the edge of each ashlar. Ashlars are large stone blocks cut smooth, with narrow margins around the edges and smooth slightly raised bosses in the center. They are easy to identify and locate in the Western Wall and in the rest of the

A Herodian ashlar located in the east side of the Temple Mount wall. The 2 to 3 inch edge that is cut about 1/2 inch deep is called the margin. The raised center of the block is called the boss. This ashlar has a smooth boss. Some ashlars had an uneven, or course, boss — as did many ashlars used in the Hasmonean construction. Despite all these wonders, the rebuilding of the Temple and the doubling of the size of the Temple Mount were Herod’s most memorable architectural projects. When

Four courses of original Herodian ashlars can be seen on the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. Temple Mount wall. Many can be seen in other walls and buildings throughout the city as well, having been reused for the last 2,000 years since the Romans toppled the temple and much of its retaining wall. Another stone design used by Herod’s builders is the simple plain and smooth rectangular block. This design is more difficult for the average visitor to identify.

A very large corner stone with margin and boss, located on the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. This southwest corner has some of the largest ashlar stones of the entire Temple Mount complex, measuring 39 feet 4 inches long by 7 feet 10 inches wide and 43 inches high. The large stone shown here is called the master course stone and weighs about 80 tons. All these stones form a strong corner as they alternate back and forth as headers and stretchers all the way up. The larger stones helped stabilize the smaller stones stacked below.

Looking east at another cornerstone on the southwest corner. The pavement and steps are original Herodian pavement placed here in the first century. The pavement and steps continued along this south wall of the Temple Mount. They will be seen again at the Double and Triple Gates further down this wall.

This Cornerstone is about 33 feet long, 7 feet wide and 3 feet tall. It weighs about 50 tons.

Some of the largest ashlars are found in the southwest corner of the Temple Mount wall. These stones weigh as much as 80 tons and are about 40 feet long, 8 feet wide and 3.5 feet tall. As seen in this photo, the workers used what is called header and stretcher construction where the stones are laid west and south in an alternating pattern. Because of the great size of the stones and this style of interlocking construction, all the corners of Herod’s Temple have been preserved to a great height — the Romans were unable to move them. This southwest corner has been preserved to the height of twelve Herodian courses of original ashlars; eight are visible here and the other four courses can be seen in photos above. Notice the edge of Robinson’s Arch on the left side of the photo.

Looking up at the Western Wall on the Western Wall prayer plaza.

Details of the original perfectly tight horizontal and vertical joints. The workmanship of Herod’s construction team still maintains its impressive quality, even after setting in the middle of all the wars and activities in Jerusalem for the past 2,000 years.

Ashlars were placed in rollers like this to be moved to location. This was one of several ways the stones were moved. Stones were also pulled by teams of oxen on rollers.

The margins, the raised bosses with the smooth face, and the tight joints in Herod's Temple Mount wall. The tight horizontal joints of ashlars setting on top of each other in the Temple Mount wall.

This is an example of a stone on rollers. The stone would be pulled by a team of oxen attached to a harness connected to the ashlar by projections of rock left uncut on both sides. On the next page are photos of projections left on the ashlar stones by Heroa’s workers.

An ashlar in the eastern wall. Estimates by experts tell us that 200 workers could produce about eight cubic meters of cut stone each day. That means one cubic meter of stone ashlar would require about 120 hours of labor to cut and dress.

Galyn points at a projection left on an ashlar. These rock projections (one on both sides of the block) would have served as handles for the workers to attach ropes in order to pull and then lift the ashlar block into place. Several ashlars on the south and east side (particularly in the southeast corner) of the Temple Mount can still be seen.

An ashlar and its uncut projection on the south side of the wall on the southeast corner.

These ashlars along the southern wall of the Temple Mount between the Double Gate and the Triple Gate are twice the height of the other Herodian courses. These were a stabilizing band known as the great course. Toni stands by the only visible course of Herodian ashlars on the south wall of the Temple Mount. The courses of stones above it are not Herodian. The Romans dismantled the southern wall down to this course. Notice that this course of ashlars (also seen below) is twice as tall as the other ashlars we have seen (about 6 feet instead of 3 feet). The Double Gate is to the left (west) of this photo and the Triple Gate is to the right (east).

This is a diagram of the retaining walls that created today’s Temple Mount. The Ark of the Covenant was located on the exposed bedrock, which is still visible under the Dome of the Rock. The original platform for the Temple Mount that served Solomon’s Temple was 500 cubits by 500 cubits (861 feet x 861 feet). This is designated by the inside square walls labeled “Solomon’s Original Platform Wall”. This square was filled in, and the Temple of the Old Testament stood there. The Hasmoneans extended the Temple Mount to the south by adding about 134 feet. At the point that the Hasmoneans began to build on the eastern Temple Mount wall there is a slight bend in the wall. This bend is slight but can be seen drifting slightly towards the east. That bend begins at the 500 cubit (861 foot) mark. The Herodian addition to the Temple Mount platform, or the distance from the southeast corner to the Straight Joint, is 105.5 feet. The Straight Joint is a very visible straight line created by courses of stones butted up against the Hasmonean stones on the east Temple Mount wall by Herod the Great when he began to expand the Temple Mount in 19 BC.

Details of a model showing the northeast corner of the Temple Mount in Jesus’ day.

This photo is looking at the southern wall on the right and the Western Wall on the left. The original Western Wall of Herod seen at the Western Wall Plaza today is the portion of the wall from where the white line makes contact with the “Western Wall” and down. These are the stones that are still visible and remain from Heroa’s wall.

The distance from the "Offset Stone" (NE corner) to the Hasmonean bend (SE corner) is 500 cubits along the east wall. The distance from this same "Offset Stone" to the corner of the northwest stairway, that does not set parallel with the Muslim platform, is 500 cubits along what would have been the north wall. Northeast End of Eastern Temple Mount Wall

The entire west side of the Temple Mount retaining wall can be called the western wall (1,600 feet), but there is a section of this wall that is commonly called the Western Wall. It is a 187 foot section of the wall with a large plaza area where the seven courses (or layers) of stones of the retaining wall of Herod's Temple Moun can still be seen.

The Western Wall at the Western Wall Prayer Plaza. This is also known as the Kotel or "Wall". Kotel ha- Ma’‘aravi means "Western Wall."

A typical midnight in June at the Western Wall Prayer Plaza. Wilson’s Arch is to the left and the ramp for non-Muslim entrance to the Temple Mount through the Morocco Gate is to the right. The men’s section is the larger portion to the left and the women’s prayer section can be seen to the right next to the ramp. There is a thin five foot wall called a mehitza separating the men’s and women’s sections.

There are 17 courses of Herodian ashlars still buried at the Western Wall. The bottom course is 50 feet wide. Seven courses from Herod’s retaining wall are presently visible above ground. The 21 courses on top of those 7 Herodian courses are, from lowest to highest:

Compare the section of Herodian ashlars in the small photo from today with the same stones seen in the model of the 70 AD Temple Mount. Notice how high today’s pavement is and how much of the wall is still buried under rubble.

Jewish men praying at the Western Wall. of the western wall, located in the tunnels cut along the base of the wall (below the surface to the left of this photo), one stone weighs 570 tons and is 44.6 feet long and almost 11 feet wide. This stone is called the Master Course.

The men's section of the Western Wall Prayer Plaza.

Another view of the Master Course Stone. The Master Course Stone: This stone is 44 feet long, 11.5 feet high, and 15 feet wide. It is estimated to weigh 570-630 tons. This stone is the master course. It was used to stabilize the smaller stones under it. It sits 20 feet above the Herodian street level and 33 feet above the bedrock. The master course extends to the left of the edge of this photo and past the right edge. The small stones setting above were used to fill in where the Romans chipped away at it in 70 AD, attempting to dismantle the whole Western Wall. They reached the level of this Master Course Stone and stopped. The rectangular holes in the stone were borec centuries later to help secure plaster to the wall in order to create an underground cistern to hold water fo! the homes above.

Galyn in the Western Wall tunnels by largest Herodian ashlar in the Temple Mount walls.

The rectangle holes in the ashlar were cut around 135 AD when Hadrian converted this area under the rubble into cisterns. The rectangle holes where cut so that wooden blocks or stones could be inserted into them to help secure the plaster to the walls. The plaster made the walls of the cisterns watertight. Some plaster can still be seen attached to part of the wall.

This is a photo of Warren's Gate that was used to access the Temple Mount. Notice the decorative engraving on the door jamb on the right side of the photo (the straight groove beginning by the number 12). Warren’s Gate is about 150 feet into the Western Wall Tunnel. The paving stones are from the original Herodian street that led to this gate. On the other side of this blocked gateway is a stairway under the Temple Mount leading up to the Temple Mount surface, which the Jews used in the Middle Ages as a synagogue called “The Cave.”

Looking north down the long Western Wall Tunnel. A close look at the ashlar with the wooden (stone) block holding the plaster in place in the Western Wall tunnel.

The tunnel continues further and further to the north along the Western Wall.

This photo was taken from the tunnel along the Western Wall looking down into an excavated area of the wall. (The Western Wall is to the top of the photo.) This view shows how deep the courses of ashlar stones go before they reach bedrock. Just a few feet north of Warren’s Gate is an area with an arch that is directly west of the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant sat. This is the closest the Jews can get to the Holy of Holies today. Warren’s Gate can be seen on the right edge of this photo just down the steps. The pavement in this photo is original Herodian.

A Herodian street near the north end of the Western Wall tunnels. The two pillars on the left were part of a colonnaded street that ran to the west of this street. This photo was taken looking north with the Western Wall on the right. This Herodian street would have run north-to-south, and the colonnaded street would have made a “T” intersection with it and run toward the west (left). Another view looking down at the ashlars. Details of the preserved stones show the quality of workmanship that is not seen on stones that have been exposed to wars and elements for 2,000 years. Notice, the depth is not as great as before since the bedrock level rises the further north the tunnel goes. S More tunnel and more ashlars as we continue toward > ~—s the north.

Galyn at the “T” intersection of the Herodian street at the north end of the Western Wall tunnels.

This quarry, only a few feet north of the Herodian road and the Hasmonean cistern, is where most of the Herodian stones for the Western Wall were taken from.

Toni stands by an unfinished quarried stone. Wooden blocks would have been wedged into the groove in the middle and then soaked with water to make the stone split.

Toni stands on the Herodian pavement between two pillars that are part of the road that led to the left of the picture. 2,000 years ago this area was under open sky, and the road continued straight (north) and to the left (west). Other pillars going west have been excavated further down the road that would have been in line with these two pillars.

North of the Western Wall and Temple Mount

In 1996 Benjamin Netanyahu allowed the Jews to open the northern end of this Western Wall tunnel. When the tunnel was blasted through, it opened onto the Ummariya Madrasah, which is the street adjacent to the Via Dolorosa. This action resulted in riots by the Muslims who believed that the Jews were tunneling under the Temple Mount and that they were attempting to lay claim to the area of territory in the Muslim Quarter (which is, either way, in Israel and under Israeli control). Over the next two weeks 14 people were killed in the riots protesting the opening of the north end of the Western Wall Tunnel. Today a wall has been built across the north end of the tunnel. The Tunnel must now be accessed from the north side in the Convent of the Sisters of Zion. The Struthion Pool lies below this covenant.

The vaulted ceiling installed by Hadrian in 135 to cover the open pools of water. The holes in the roof where used by people above to access the water by lowering buckets on ropes. Hadrian built a market place at street level above these vaulted ceilings.

The Struthion Pool was an open pool that served as a water reservoir for the city and as a moat for Fort Antonia. It collected rain water and also received water from the Hasmonean aqueduct.

A first century mikvah used during the days of Jesus and the book of Acts, located south of the Temple Mount at the base of the Double Gate stairs. This could easily have been one of the many mikvah used to baptize some of the 3,000 new Jewish believers on the Day of Pentecost as described in Acts 2.

Galyn and Toni in the entrance of a mikvah on the outside of the southern wall of the Old City. The area around the Temple Mount, especially to the south, is filled with mikvah. Many of them were most likely used on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) to baptize the converted Jews in Jesus’ name. It signified a major change in their understanding of who Jesus was and was a sign of their new faith and allegiance. A mikvah had to have a source of running water, such as a spring, or fresh water, such as rain. A mikvah had to be large enough to allow an average sized person to immerse his whole body. Stairs would be used to descend into and ascend from the mikvah. Often there was a wall separating the clean side from the unclean side.

Looking down on the large mikvah discovered in 2009 just 65 feet west of the Temple Mount’s Western Wall. In 2009 a large 2,000-year-old mikvah was uncovered along the Western Wall Tunnel only 65 feet from the Western Wall itself. This was one of the largest mikvah ever discovered. It has 11 steps and was used by the multitude of Jews entering the Temple Mount near Wilson’s Arch or Warren’s Gate.

Joesphus wrote that the Jewish government’s administrative center was located in this area at the foot of the Temple on the west side. The Talmud says that the Sanhedrin would meet in this building. This highly decorated mikvah has the architectural and artistic style of some of Herod’s most magnificent works with finely dressed ashlar stones and the highest quality craftsmanship in decorating. This could be part of the Sanhedrin’s governmental building as well as their ritual bath.

Wilson’s Arch is the modern name for an arch that spanned 42 feet and supported a road that ran 75 feet above the Herodian pavement and valley below. The road at the top of Wilson’s Arch accessed a gate which was level with the surface of the Temple Mount in Jesus’ day. Although the arch stood high above the Herodian pavement, only the top is still visible today, where it is still supported against the Western Wall. Josephus mentions the bridge that this arch was a part of and says it connected the Temple Mount to the Upper City on the Western Hill on the other side of the Central (Tyropoeon) Valley. This bridge also carried water through an aqueduct to the Temple Mount from Solomon’s Pools. The arch was identified in 1864 by Charles Wilson.

Wilson's Arch can be seen in the corner of the Western Wall (top center of the photo). Today the height from the bottom of the arch to the pavement below is only 20 feet. In 30 AD the height was 75 feet.

The gate post, or jamb, on the lower right dates from the time of Herod's Temple. The gate has since been blocked shut. This northernmost gate of Herod’s Temple is known today as Warren’s Gate, discovered by Charles Warren, the British archaeologist who worked in Jerusalem under an association called the Palestine Exploration Fund in the 1800's. Warren’s Gate was one of four entrances into the Temple Mount from the west side. It is located about 150 feet into the Western Wall Tunnel. On the other side of this now blocked gate is a tunnel and a staircase that lead up to the surface of the Temple Mount. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire (Christians), the Muslim conquerors allowed the Jews to pray in this tunnel, and the Jews created a synagogue here at the base of the stairs below the Temple Mount. But, in 1099 the Crusaders (Christians) destroyed the synagogue, which the Jews had called “the Cave”, and turned it into a cistern. This was the closest gate to the Holy of Holies.

Toni stands at a point in the Western Wall tunnel that is the closest location to the Holy of Holies available to the Jews. About 15 steps behind her and down a flight of stairs is Warren's Gate. In July of 1981 a riot erupted here between the Jewish archaeologists excavating this tunnel and some Muslims who came down from the Temple Mount through the stairway leading to Warren’s Gate. A few Jews had begun removing stones that blocked Warren’s Gate and the noise alerted the Muslims on the Temple Mount above.

The stairway is still on the other side of the wall and still leads to the Temple Mount. This staircase is accessed from the Temple Mount just north of the Mugrabi Gate. The Muslims descend these stairs today to a room they call El-Buraq Mosque. The gate used to enter the Temple Mount today is above the lintel of Barclay’s Gate and is called the Moroccans’ Gate, the Gate of the Moors, or the Mugrabi Gate.

This large stone (which looks like a square) is itself about 21 feet long, 6.5 feet wide, and weighs 50 tons. This stone was the massive lintel (or, top stone) that spanned a gate into the temple of Herod's day. The gate entrance was almost 27 feet high. The building to the right was attached to the Western Wall and was originally part of a ramp that led to the Mugrabi Gate, which was above Barclay's Gate. The lintel can be seen from the inside of the building. This gate was first recognized by James Barclay, an American consul in 1855. It is referred to as the Kiponus Gate in the Mishna.

Below the lintel, before the building was added, the gate was closed in with smaller stones

The southwest corner of the Temple Mount. The remains of where Robinson's Arch made contact with the Western Wall can still be seen. The entrance gate would have been directly above this.

A view looking up at Robinson's Arch from the original Herodian pavement below. The blocks and windows above the arch are not original. The windows open into the Islamic Museum that can be visited on the Temple Mount. The Muslims call the Temple Mount Hara mesh-Sherif, “The Noble Sanctuary.” This arch, the spring, and all the stones in the wall below the arch are original from the Days of Herod's construction, which began in 19 BC. The arch, the staircase, and the gate were in use in the days of Jesus when he spent time on the Temple Mount. is the point at which the arch begins to rise from its support). The groove seen along the wall running below Robinson's Arch on both the west and south walls was cut into the Herodian ashlars by the Muslim Umayyad Dynasty between the years 651 and 750. The Muslims used these grooves to hold pipes that supplied water to the buildings constructed to the south of the Temple Mount. The walls of one of those buildings can be seen in the right of this photo directly behind the Temple Mount’s southern wall. A close look at the walls of this building reveal that it was built with reused Herodian ashlar stones that were left from the Roman destruction of the Temple site in 70 AD. Reused Herodian ashlars are very common throughout the citv.

Benjamin Mazar excavated this area after 1967. Before that time the ground level was up to Robinson's Arch so that a person could walk up and touch it. Below, in the excavation you can see (from left to right):

Robinson's Arch - all that remains of this Herodian structure is the spring of the arch which was embedded into the wall to support the arch and pavement. The gate was designed to provide access to the Temple Mount, directly above this spring (A spring of an arch

This close-up shows the Herodian ashlar stones that surround the arch. A photo taken from on top of rubble that has not yet been removed looking south at Robinson's Arch. Until 1967 the rubble under Robinson’s Arch brought the ground level up to the arch. Older photos of Robinson’: Arch show people touching and sitting on the Arch fron ground level.

A Hebrew inscription was engraved and is visible in one of the ashlar blocks under Robinson's Arch.

This photo, looking north with the Western Wall on the right, shows the pavement crushed by falling blocks of stone from the Roman destruction in 70 AD. In the bottom right quadrant of the photo the remains of shops built against the Western Wall can be seen. Shops lined both sides of this street and may have been controlled by the High Priest Annas. The street was originally built by Herod the Great and later repaved by Herod Agrippa | around 40-44 AD. Under the street is a gutter that is large enough to walk in, which collected rain water and ran it south, out of the city. The pavement is supported by three rows of vaults which created vaulted rooms built on the bedrock. During the Roman destruction of the Temple and Temple Mount huge chunks of rock and ashlar stones were pushed over the edge onto this pavement, where the force of the falling objects crushed portions of the pavement down into the gutter beneath the

Looking south down the Herodian street along the Western Wall at the southwest end of the Temple Mount. Notice the flat paving stones used in the street. Notice also the straight stone curb running along the right side. Toni sits toward the end of the street on the curb in front of shops that were under the staircase of Robinson’s Arch. Stones from the Jewish Temple and broken Herodian ashlars lay at the base of the Temple Mount wall right were they landed in 70 AD when the Tenth Roman Legion destroyed the temple and its courts.

Two interesting pieces of the Temple complex are seen here. 1) In the front right is a stone that fell from the Temple Mount above. It is a piece of the railing from the course of stones at the top of the southwest corner, and is called the Trumpeting Stone. The priestly trumpeter would have stood on this stone to sound the trumpet signaling the beginning and end of Sabbath days and festivals. The sharp corner that has been cut out of this block is where the priest would have stood, and the beveled edge served as a guard railing. In the top left portion of the guard rail is a Hebrew inscription. It is likely that James, the pastor of the Jerusalem church who wrote the book of James, was forced to stand on this stone in 63 AD to proclaim that Jesus was not the Messiah. Instead, James confessed Jesus by announcing to the crowd that Jesus was the Christ, that he sits at Goad’s right hand, and that he will return in the clouds from heaven. The scribes and Pharisees responded by pushing James, the brother of the Lord, over this railing to his death. 2) Behind the Trumpeting Stone on the pavement is a nicely carved block that was a decorative piece from the Temple complex. Also notice the four shops on the curb of the pavement on the left side, at the back of the photo.

Fallen stones from the Temple and Temple Mount lay in a heap at the base of the Western Wall. At the back left of the photo is an area that has not been excavated. Behind that is the Western Wall Plaza.

A 246 foot portion of the street was excavated below Robinson’s Arch. The street there is 28 feet wide and is bordered with raised curbstones.

This view is looking at the back of the shops (see the lintel of the shop door, middle left) and at the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. In the middle of the photo is a bakery where circular floor ovens were found. This photo shows the southwest corner of the Temple Mount wall. The Herodian ashlar cornerstones are clearly visible. To the right (east) are the pavement and steps that lead along the southern wall. To the left (going north) are the stair steps that led up to the top of the shops that sat along the Western Wall.

This is the front view of the same bakery. Notice the three blocks of the curb and the pavement in front of the bakery, in the bottom right corner of the photo.

A close up of the front of the shops sitting along the Herodian road. Notice the nicely cut ashlar stones that formed the door jambs and supported the lintels above the doorways. This street was lined with shops on both sides. Shops along the Herodian Street can be seen to the right of the curb. The lintels (top stone over the doorways) of these shops provided support for Robinson’s Arch, which in turn supported the staircas: that led to the southwestern gate of the Temple Moun

A general idea of how the stairway would have beer laid out.

These are the remains of three or four of the shops on the east side of the pavement that were built perpendicular to the Western Wall. Crushed pavement and curbs are seen in the bottom right quadrant of the photo.

A view from above looking at the southwest corner of the Western Wall. Notice the shops along the Western Wall and the stairs that begin at the base of the southwest corner and go over the top of the shops.

A close up of the stairs that go to the top of the shops on the east side of the road. The shops on the west side can be seen to the left of the road. Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury, (for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be done,) Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest eminency; that is, Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and Mariamne; and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. This wall was spared, in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison, as were the towers also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman valor had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall, it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were for innovations; a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind. But Caesar resolved to leave there, agaeqgniiard tha tanth laninn with rartain trnnne

Since 1967 when the Israelis took control of eastern Jerusalem, extensive excavation has been done in this area called the Ophel south of the Temple Mount. This is a view of the eastern two-thirds of the southern wall. Notice the how quickly the ground level drops off as the wall continues toward the east (right). The dome of the Al Aqsa Mosque can be seen where Solomon’s Porch, or the Royal Stoa, of the Jews once stood on the south side of the Temple Mount.

Southern Wall: Double Gate, Triple Gate, Stair Steps, Single Gate, Burnt Shops

A view of the southern wall and the excavation done in the Ophel area. Notice the location of these things: 1) paved street, 2) the Double Gate, 3) the Triple Gate, 4) marks from the Burnt Herodian Arches, and 5) the ti large sets of stairs (not labeled) leading up to the Double and Triple Gates. It may also be of interest to recogn where the remains of the Akra, the old Seleucid fortress, is.

Above the Umayyad Arch (built in the 600's AD by the Muslims) are four trapezoidal stones which form the arch of Herod's New Testament Temple Mount entrance. Below the trapezoidal stones is a large horizontal stone with a wide margin and boss carved into it. This is the lintel for the Herodian Double Gate. To the left behind the Crusader wall, the rest of the gate can be seen.

This is a photo from the Temple Mount where the worshipper would emerge after entering the Double Gate. Today this entrance is only accessible to Muslims (although, | have to admit that | was tempted run down the stairs into the tunnel to see and photograph the decorations in the rock walls and domed ceilings). The building behind this is the Al Aqsa Mosque which is considered the third most holy site in the world for Muslims after Mecca and Medina. EO Av view of the eastern half of the Double Gate. This gate led into a magnificently decorated tunnel under the Temple Mount's Royal Stoa (Solomon’s Porch) which led to a set of stairs that brought the worshipper up to the surface of the Temple Mount. The distance from the street level in front of the Double Gate up the stairs to the Temple Mount surface is about 46 feet.

The upside down inscription is from the Roman statue of Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD) that the Bordeaux Pilgrim recorded seeing when he was on the Temple Mount in 333 AD. The statue was destroyed by the Byzantine Christians after 333 AD, the Jews in 614 AD or the Muslims in 638 AD. This reused block is the only part found so far of the two statues (one of Hadrian, and this one of Antoninus Pius.)

Notice the four trapezoidal stones forming the arch of the Double Gate from the days of Herod, and the large horizontal lintel directly below them with the wide margin and boss. The decorative arch attached to the face of the wall is from the late 600’s AD. Also notice the square stone that sets immediately to the right (east) of the fourth trapezoidal stone, even with the top of the arch. This stone is etched with a Romar inscription and was placed in the wall upside down. It is the base of a Roman statue that sat on the Temple Mount in the days of Hadrian after the second Jewish revolt was quenched in 135 AD.

Shown rightside-up, the inscription reads: To Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius The father of the fatherland, pontifex, augur Decreed by the Decurions

Toni stands on the street pavement along the southern Temple Mount wall between the Double and Triple Gates at the top of the large staircases. The large six-foot-tall ashlars behind her are original Herodian stones remaining from the Temple Mount that was destroyed in 70 AD. This course of ashlars is double the height of the average ashlar because they served as the “master course.” Notice that at the street level, the margin and bosses of a lower course of ashlars can be seen directly behind Toni’s feet.

The Triple Gate led visitors under the Temple Mount through a decorated tunnel beneath the Royal Stoa on the south end of Solomon’s Colonnade, then to a stairway which took worshippers up to the outer courtyard of the Temple Mount. This Triple Gate is likelh the “Beautiful Gate” of Acts 3:2:

A close up of the stone carvings from the west door jamb of the Triple Gate. This is all that remains of Herod's original gate, called the Beautiful Gate, that served as an entrance to the tunnel and staircase that still exist behind this blocked gate. This ashlar is 48 inches long. Eighteen inches are decorated with a classical gate profile, and the remaining 30 inches are carved in a style typical of Herodian ashlars. The Triple Gate was rebuilt during the Umayyad Dynasty (661-750). The Crusaders blocked it shut to protect themselves from the Muslims around 1100.

To the left (west) side of the first gate of the three, decorative rock carvings in the door jamb can still be seen on the ashlar stone that was part of the Triple Gate or Beautiful Gate. The highly decorated stones may be the reason it was called “The Beautiful Gate.” Jesus and the apostles would have surely walked through this gate that led up to the outer courts and Solomon’s Porch, where the early church in Jerusalen met daily.

Further to the east on the south wall is the Single Gate. It was cut by the Knights Templar and is not original to the Temple Mount. The Crusaders used this gate to access the caverns below the Temple Mount, where they kept their horses. The caverns are called “Solomon’s Stables.” The gate was blocked shut by Saladin in 1187 when the Muslims returned. Below this arch are the remains of other arches that supported the Herodian street that ran the full length of the southern wall. The vaulted rooms created by this arched support system were used as shops. The intense heat from the Roman fire in 70 AD seared the wall below the Single Gate, and created burnt impressions of the arches. The impressions burnt onto the Herodian ashlars still clearly show where these shops and their vaulted walls stood.

The intense heat of the Roman destruction created burnt impressions on the southern wall of the Temple Mount, outlining the arches of the vaulted rooms that supported the paved street as it descended. Shops were located in these vaulted rooms under the street.

A channel cut in the rock (dotted white line in photo above) took water from a large cistern on the Temple Mount to the ritual baths below the Double and Triple Gates. It runs under the Double Gate stairs and then turns east under the stairs of the Triple Gate.

Overlooking the Ophel where heavy excavation south of the Temple Mount began in 1967 and continues today. The Double Gate and the large stairs are in the middle of the photo and to the right side in the background.

Excavation south of the Temple Mount on the Ophel. A portion of the remains of the Seleucid Akra, which overlooked the Temple Mount during the days of the Macabbean Revolt. The Macabbees tore it down and built a southern extension of the Temple Mount over the northern portion of this structure. The Triple Gate stairs can be seen in the top left of this photo.

Mikvah by the stairs south of the Temple. Looking south from near the Triple Gate.

Looking south over the Archaeological Park and excavation south of the Temple Mount.

Excavated remains south of the Temple Mount looking southwest from near the Triple Gate. Excavated remains south of the Temple Mount looking east/southeast.

Excavation south of the Temple Mount on the Ophel.

Three different walls can be distinguished as we look up the Ophel toward the southern Temple Mount wall in the back.

Herodian ashlars setting south of the Temple Mount.

The columned courtyard of a public building in the Muslim palace complex, from around 700 AD. These pillars were taken from Byzantine Christian churches that had been destroyed.

Looking down into an excavated room and doorway. Notice the original stonework on the floor.

This pavement along the edge of the Pool of Siloam leads to the street.

Having said this, Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put in on the man’s eyes. ‘Go,’ Jesus told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam.’ So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. - John 9:6-7 A good view of the alternating steps and the pavement stones. To the left is dirt that has not been excavated yet. To the right is a wall that blocks access to the rest of the street which is being excavated now.

Recent excavation of this area has uncovered a stepped stone street that ascends from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple Mount. Notice in the back of this photo that the front of three steps can be seen. The style of the stairs is similar to the large staircases in front of the Double and Triple Gates, in that the steps alternate between narrow and wide runs. In this photo the first step is a narrow run while the second step is wider. This created a slow, steady procession as people ascended from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple Mount. In this photo the excavation turns toward the left and then follows a section of this wide street up through the City of David.

A portion of the width of the street can be seen here. Only the left side (top of photo) was excavated and accessible when this photo was taken. Again, notice the steps beginning to ascend through the City of David on the eastern ridge of the city as we approach the Ophel and Mount Moriah. This street and these stairs would have been used by the blind man as he approached the Pool of Siloam to wash the mud from his eyes:

The stepped stone street is much wider than this, but this narrow portion was excavated and accessible in June of 2010. Galyn ready to ascend the recently excavated stepped stone street that leads from the Pool of Siloam up to the Temple Mount. The continuation of the street can be seer in the opening further up on the left side of the street. The Temple Mount is 1600 feet (a little more than a quarter mile) up these stairs to the north, but the excavation does not continue all the way to the Temple Mount.

This is a photo of the gutter that runs under the stepped stone street. This gutter system would collect runoff rain water from the city and drain it toward the Pool of Siloam. Notice that it has been completely excavated, since both sides reveal a wall made of blocks that support the stone paved street above. Looking down the stepped stone street that leads to the Pool of Siloam. Only 6 feet of the 25-foot-wide street has been excavated so far.

The east wall of the gutter and a view of the tunnel ahead. A close up of the left (west) stone wall of the gutter under the street.

In 70 AD the Jews used this gutter system to escape from the city of Jerusalem by fleeing south under the walls. When the Romans finally entered the city they found these tunnels crowded with Jews who they then slaughtered.

This is a view of one side of the Pool of Siloam. The steps and platforms would allow people to walk down to the water level, which would change depending on the season and the amount of rainfall. The pool is not yet excavated to the left of this photo. Notice the corner of the pool in the bottom right corner of this photo. The Pool of Siloam sits to the south of the City of David on the west side of the eastern hill. It received water from Hezekiah’s Tunnel, which came originally from the Gihon Springs.

This is an illustration of what the Pool of Siloam would have looked like. The photo above corresponds to the left side of this image. The area shown on the right side of the image is still unexcavated and so, still buried. The actual Herodian pavement can be seen in the bottom right corner of this picture in its actual relative position to the pool.

A drain in the Herodian pavement by the Pool of Siloam. A water trough beside the Pool of Siloam has holes to support water jugs as they were being filled.

One of the four corners of the Pool of Siloam. A photo from inside the Pool of Siloam looking up at the excavated side. The left of the photo remains unexcavated as of 2010. This site was discovered in 2004.

Toni and Galyn exchange photos from the top and bottom of the Pool of Siloam while excavation continues at the site.

A beveled hole in one of the steps at the Pool of Siloam, used to hold a beveled water jug.

Pools of Bethesda (also called Bethseda, Beth-zatha) The bridge-like structure on the right side of the photo is the dam that separated the south (left) side of the Pools of Bethesda from the north pool (to the right of the photo). The depth of the pool can be seen in this photo. When the Roman Empire became Christian (i.e., the Byzantine Empire of 326-638), it built a church over these two pools. One of the many arches that supported the large Byzantine structure can be seen in the middle of this photo.

This is a model of Jerusalem as it appeared in 70 AD. Notice the two pools that made up the Pools of Bethesda. The south and north pools can be seen, along with the five colonnaded porches that surrounded it. Each of the four sides had a colonnaded porch. The fifth colonnaded porch would be the covered dam that separated the two pools.

Water is still found under the vaulted rooms that supported the Byzantine church which was built over the northern pool around 350. It was destroyed in approximately 614.

The two grey domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher can be seen in the skyline of this photo looking west from the Mount of Olives. The Dome of the rock, which sets in the middle of this photo on the Temple Mount, was built 300 years later to rival the proclamation of Constantine and the Christian world made by the then magnificent Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The church was later totally destroyed by the Muslims in 1009, only to be rebuilt by the Crusaders after 1100.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher has been destroyed and rebuild several times through the centuries. The church we see today was constructed by the Crusaders. The small grey dome covers the rock of Calvary, and the large dome covers the site of Jesus’ burial and resurrection.

The cross on the grey dome over Calvary in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Today's Church of the Holy Sepulcher sets over two sites: Calvary and the tomb of Jesus. Both these sites were in the same garden outside the walls of Jerusalem in 30 AD, and now they are under one roof. John wrote that they were close to each other:

At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. -John 19:41 In 135, after the second Jewish revolt (132-135), Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as the Roman city, Aelia Capitolina. He also renamed Judea “Palaestina” (that is, Palestine), after the ancient enemies of the Jews, the Philistines, who had ceased to be a people after the Babylonian invasions around 586 BC. Hadrian built a huge raised platform (a rectangular retaining wall filled with dirt) on the location of this ancient quarry covered with gardens and tombs in an effort to bury Calvary and the tomb of Jesus, an honored site of the Christians. The platform was needed to level the stone surface that was cut up by the quarry and the tombs. Hadrian built the retaining wall of this platform with Herodian ashlars (most likely from the Jewish Temple Mount). These stones are identical in size and facing to the Herodian ashlars in the retaining wall of the Temple Mount, which made Hadrian’s wall look like Herod’s Western Wall. Hadrian then built a temple to Venus on top of this platform.

The drawing above shows the abandoned quarry that was covered with reddish-brown soil in the 100’s BC in order to create a garden. The area also supported cereal crops and an orchard of fig, carob, and olive trees.

This is the floor plan of Constantine's magnificent and extravagant Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It consisted of a Basilica, a colonnaded courtyard around Calvary, and a large colonnaded rotunda around Jesus’ tomb. When the crusaders arrived in 1099 they rebuilt the ruined church with parts of Hadrian’s temple that can be seen in eight different locations in the church today. The crusaders also used the remains of Constantine’s glorious rotunda and basilica, including marble pillars they reduced to half their original size. Godfrey of Bouillon became the first Crusader king of Jerusalem on July 15, 1099 and called himself the “Defender of the Holy Sepulcher.” The Crusader church was completed fifty years later in 1149.

Construction of Constantine's Church of the Holy Sepulcher was begun in 326, and the building was dedicated on September 17, 335. The cutting away of all rock around the tomb was not completed until 384. MU Witt be Wer, tnererore, TOF YOUF Sagacity tO Make such arrangements and provision of all things needful for the work, that not only the church itself as a whole may surpass all others whatsoever in beauty, but that the details of the building may be of such a kind that the fairest structures in any city of the empire may be excelled by this... and as to the columns and marbles, whatever you shall judge, after actual inspection of the plan, to be especially precious and serviceable, be diligent to send information to us in writing, in order that whatever quantity or sort of materials we shall esteem from your letter to be needful, may be procured from every quarter, as required, for it is fitting that the most marvelous place in the world should be worthily decorated. With respect to the ceiling of the church, | wish to know from you whether in your judgment it should be panel-ceiled, or finished with any other kind of workmanship. If the panel ceiling be adopted, it may also be ornamented with gold. (The Life of Constantine, Book III, Chapter XXX and XXX71) It is interesting to note Eusebius’ understanding of the eschatological value of these events, and it is worth noting that Eusebius’ view reflected the attitude of Constantine and the general Christian of that day. Eusebius’ interpretation of scripture and his understanding of eschatological events led him and Constantine to consider this building project part of the New Jerusalem, and Constantine’s reign as the reappearance of Christ on earth to rule through his church. This was one of several corruptions of eschatological interpretation that was to happen throughout church history. Eusebius wrote:

This is the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The current building was inaugurated by the Crusaders who rebuilt it in 1149. This site was honored by first century Christians, buried by Hadrian in 135, identified by local believers in 326, covered by Constantine’s church by 335, which was then destroyed by the Persians in 614, only to be rebuilt and destroyed again by the Muslim Caliph Hakim in 1009. The right (east) half of the main entrance to the church was walled shut by the Muslims after the Crusaders lost Jerusalem in 1187.

The front door on the left side of the entryway of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher shows charred remains near the metal handles and locks from a serious fire in the church in 1808. In 1927 an earthquake also caused great damage to the church. Damage from the earthquake was not repaired until 1959 because it took 32 years for the Latin, Greek and Armenian Christians to come to an agreement on how the church was to be repaired. This ladder is located on a ledge above the main entrance. It was placed there some time in the late 1800's to take food to Armenian monks who were locked inside the church. This ladder can be seen in photos from at least 1890. The ladder remains where it is because the various Christian groups that control the church cannot agree on who is responsible for putting it away. Each of the six groups - Greek Orthodox, Roman (Latin) Catholics, Armenians, Copts, Syrians, and Ethiopians — have their own areas of jurisdiction which were nrecicelvy defined in 18527.

Today this church is shared by six groups of Christians: Latin Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Syrians, Copts, and Ethiopians.

These are the eighteen steps up to Calvary. The steps are directly behind the blocked doorway at the front of the church. The steps are worn with dips, and the stairs tilt to the left. The rock of Calvary is located a few feet on the other side of this wall. At the top of the stairs we emerge into the Roman (Latin) Catholic Chapel for Calvary.

This is a floor plan of today's Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Locate the "Entrance" (right above the “Entrance Court) and the unblocked door seen above. Some areas we will visit in the next few pages are:

This is the Greek Altar in the Greek Chapel at Calvary (notice in the room to the right is the Roman Catholic Chapel). Underneath the altar and just in front of the picture (by the head of the person who is kneeling) is an opening through which you can actually touch the bedrock of Calvary at a spot that is traditionally believed to be near the place where the base of the cross was placed. On both sides of the altar the original bedrock of the rock known as Calvary (Golgotha or “The Skull”) can be seen through the viewing glass. The glass is there because, through the centuries, visiting pilgrims have chipped off souvenirs from these holy sites, including the original burial bench in Jesus’ tomb.

Down the stairs and directly below the Greek Chapel at Calvary is another chapel called The Chapel of Adam. Here again we see more of the stone of Calvary in a viewing case. There is a crack in this rock that tradition Says was caused by the earthquake that occurred when Jesus died, but archaeologists and geologists say the crack is an original flaw that would have rendered it useless for making blocks. That is why it (Calvary) was left in the quarry. It was rejected by the builders.

This is a close up of the rock of Calvary as seen through the wall in the Chapel of Adam. We are back on the main floor in the Chapel of Adam. We will leave this room and turn left to walk to the tomb of Jesus, going past the Stone of Anointing, which would be very close to the place Joseph and Nicodemus wrapped Jesus’ body:

During the Byzantine period many of the traditions (both true and merely legendary) that had been associated with the Temple Mount were transferred to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. For example, Adam was said to be buried beneath the cross on Calvary, thus the meaning of “Golgotha’” - the place of the skull. Also, the sacrifice of Isaac was transferred from the Temple Mount to the Holy Sepulcher. With the building of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, these traditions were transferred back to the Temple Mount by the Muslims.

We enter the rotunda that encircles the tomb of Jesus. These are the columns at the front on the left side of the Rotunda.

These columns are on the right side in the back of the Rotunda as we face the tomb. Constantine’s spectacular rotunda with its large dome covering the tomb of Christ was intended to declare Christ’s victory and reign. Eusebius, the church historian from the days of Constantine, quoted Constantine as ordering a rotunda built for Christ that was “of a magnificence worthy of his wealth and of his crown.”

This modern Greek Orthodox mosaic hangs behind the Stone of Anointing and can be seen as we enter the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The mosaic shows Jesus’ body being removed from the cross with the skull of Adam in the ground beneath it (far right). This is why the chapel under the Greek Chapel at Calvary is called the Chapel of Adam. According to tradition, Adam was buried under Calvary when he died. But, an even earlier tradition has Adam being buried under the Most Holy Place on the Temple Mount. It appears this Jewish tradition followed the Christians from the Temple Mount to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. To the left of the Calvary scene is the middle scene, showing the anointing of Jesus’ body. The third scene, furthest to the left, is the burial of Jesus’ body in the tomb. All three of these events took place under the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Stone of Anointing between Calvary and the tomb. This stone was placed here 1810 after the fire of 1808 destroyed the previous stone that had been here since the time of the Crusaders in the 1100’s.

These columns are on the left side toward the back of the tomb.

Columns, with the dome of the Rotunda above. This is inside the larger of the two grey domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The dome of the Rotunda. This is the inside of the larger grey dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Originally, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was constructed as two sites. The first was a rotunda (a building with a circular ground plan) with a dome marking the tomb of Christ. The second was a basilica church on the site of the crucifixion. (A basilica is large-roofed hall with interior colonnades that divides the space, giving aisles or arcaded spaces at one or both sides. There is also an apse at one end where the church leaders sit. The central aisle is usually wider and higher than the flanking aisles. This design allows light to enter through the clerestory windows, the upper row of windows, in order to bring light all the way to the center of the large building). Between these two buildings was a courtyard enclosed in a columned portico. All this was located on the west side of the Cardo, Jerusalem’s main street at that time. The Basilica faced the street and was the front entrance of the complex.

The Madaba map from the 500's AD shows the main Roman road called the Cardo with the most important Christian churches in relation to the Cardo. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is shown with its basilica built in front of Calvary so that it extends all the way to the Cardo. Also, shown on the map are the Nea Church, the Siloam Church and the Zion Church. On Easter each year during the Byzantine era, a very large procession began at the Nea Church and progressed down the Cardo Street to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

This photo provides a perspective of the distance between Calvary and the tomb of Jesus. This was originally a rock quarry that was abandoned and used for cutting tombs in the days of the New Testament. The Stone of Anointing is in the middle of this photo. An image of what the tomb of Jesus originally looked like. The only part left is the burial bench.

The front of the Holy Sepulcher. The only original part of Jesus’ tomb that is left is the burial bench in the back left of the elaborate building.

This is the marble slab that covers the burial bench of Jesus located in the Rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was placed here in 1555. The split in the middle of the slab was put there on purpose to discourage Muslim looters during the Ottoman Empire

Inside the small opening we can see the original bedrock and tombs in the back. There is a small door to the right that blocks access into one of the tombs.

A small room behind the Rotunda, just a few steps fron the tomb of Jesus, provides access to other tombs from the same period. In this picture is a small opening that leads to the long narrow tombs. In the next photo we will look inside this doorway. Then, we will crouch down and enter the tombs inside.

At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb.

Crosses cut in the walls on both sides of the stairs leading down to the church of St. Helen. This cross graffiti has been carved by pilgrims through the centuries. The design of most of these crosses is from the Crusader period. Here we look inside the areas where bodies were laid after they were wrapped in cloth and spices. After about a year, the body would have decayed, and the bones would then be collected and placed in an ossuary box.

This is a photo of the Chapel of the True Cross. Tradition says that Constantine's mother found the true cross of Jesus hidden in this chapel when they uncovered the area in 326. Across that was considered the "true" cross existed, but was taken by the Persians. It was later recovered and restored to the church. Ironically, it eventually disappeared completely due to Christian pilgrims picking pieces of wood from it and taking them home.

This is the ceiling of the Chapel of the True Cross. The large rock portion at the top of the photo was rejected by the cutters and was left in the quarry. The square openings at the top of the vaulted ceiling were used to lower buckets into this part of the quarry when it had been converted into a cistern before the time of Constantine. The image of a ship painted on a Herodian ashlar found at the bottom of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Chapel of St. Vartan. It is accessed from the left side of the altar in the Chapel of St. Helen, and is next to the Chapel of the True Cross. Hadrian reused the Herodian stones from the Temple to build his pagan shrine over the tomb of Jesus. It appears a Christian pilgrim visited this site after sailing here from a foreign land. He drew the image of his ship with a lowered sail and wrote, “Lord, we came.”

Another interpretation of the Latin inscription is “DD M NOMINUS’ (“the gift of Marcus Nominus’”).

early Christians visited this site to honor Jesus, even while a pagan shrine stood here. The boat could be a Byzantine sailing ship with the mast lowered. The bow of the ship is to the left, and the stern and two steering rudders at the back are on the right side. If that is the case, the inscription would be from around the time of Constantine, probably after Constantine had ordered the destruction of Hadrian’s temples but before the Church of the Holy Sepulcher had been built. The inscription is from the traditional Psalm of the pilgrim to Jerusalem:

This photo shows the doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher being locked by a Muslim man whose family has done it every day since 1178 AD when the Muslim Nuseibeh family was appointed by Saladin to take care of the key and manage the locking and unlocking of the 3 ton doors for the constantly fighting Christian groups. During the 1700’s there were tensions between the Ottoman Empire authorities and the Nuseibeh family, so in 1789 the Joudeh family was given the responsibility of assisting the Nuseibeh family. Since that time a member of the Joudeh family brings the key to a member of the Nuseibeh family who then unlocks and locks the Church door fo! the Christians.

A carved water channel cut in the pavement in front o: the tomb entrance Notice the burial bench was carved away by the Byzantine Christians to create a rock sarcophagus.

PAYOUE OYUY IOCL LY HIG ICll (WOO? UF FIG ORKUT UF Gordon's Calvary is a rolling stone tomb (there is a track or groove cut in the rock in front of the entrance of the tomb for a rolling stone) with a burial bench inside. This tomb was discovered in 1867, and because of its proximity to "the Skull" it was assumed by the British to be the tomb of Christ. Of course, this assumption went against 1,800 years of history and tradition (and now, today, archaeological evidence as well) that pointed to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as being the authentic place of Jesus death, burial and resurrection. This tomb was not an unused “new” tomb in the time of Christ, nor did Joseph cut it in the first century. Tombs of the New Testament era had burial chambers, or burial benches, cut out of rock behind the entrance room (called the vestibule), similar to those seen in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The style of this tomb, however, is typical of tombs from 800-600 BC, with two burial benches cut into the wall. The Byzantine Christians of 300-600 AD did not consider this a holy site, since they cut down the burial benches to create a a sarcophagus to bury their dead. Even the Christian a arc oar ee | ce or a”

Galyn steps out of the Garden Tomb. One of the reasons this site is promoted by Protestant groups and receives attention in Protestant Bible dictionaries, atlases, and other study books is because the Protestants are newcomers to Christianity and have no designated place in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Protestant groups did not emerge from the Roman (Latin) Catholic branch of church history until the 1500 and 1600’s, long after the church building was controlled by six ancient Christian “denominations” powerful in the Eastern World — Latin Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Syrian, Coptic, and Ethiopian. In fact, many Protestant churches show no interest in Jerusalem or the Holy Land at all. Nonetheless, the Garden Tomb is not the original site of Jesus’ burial and resurrection. There is no reason to even consider this location, other than the fact that it is a tomb outside the walls of Jerusalem. But then, there are hundreds of tombs outside the walls of Jerusalem, many with outcroppings of rock near tombs set in ancient gardens. This site is interesting, but it is not unique.

Fort Antonia, Herod's fortress used to oversee the Temple Mount, sat on this outcropping of rock that served as the foundation of the north wall of the Temple Mount. There are several things to notice in this photo:

The first of five 19-inch square sockets that supported beams above the colonnade of the Jewish Temple is circled in one of the Herodian ashlars 29 feet above the ground. The location of the other four sockets, which are blocked by the trees, is marked by small white squares. Below them, just right of the first tree trunk, is a trapezoidal socket cut later by Muslims. The pillared portico, or colonnade (a walkway lined with columns and covered with a roof), would have run along the front of this rockscarp. The roof was supported by wooden beams extending upward from the 19-inch square sockets cut into Herodian ashlars 29 feet up the wall. The location and spacing of the columns can be identified by simply extending a perpendicular line out from the remaining 19-inch sockets. The wooden beams placed in these sockets would have lain on the columns, which would have made them about 27 feet tall. The original Herodian paving stones from this colonnaded pavement were visible until recently, but they, like many other evidences of the ancient Jewish presence on the Temple Mount, have been covered up or removed by the Muslims. Even the trees growing along this wall block a clear view of the sockets.

A close up of one of the 19-inch square sockets cut into the Temple Mount that was used to support a wooden beam that sat on the columns and served as part of the roofing structure in the colonnade.

This is a model of the northwest corner of the Temple Mount. Fort Antonia is outside, but shared the north wall with the Temple complex, which then served as Fort Antonia's south wall. The portico, or covered colonnade, continued all around the inside of the Temple Mount. At the south end, above the Double Gate and Triple Gate, the covered colonnade became a higher and wider section with four columns instead of two. This area was known as Solomon’s Porch, Solomon’s Colonnade, or the Royal Stoa.

One of the many sockets cut later in the rockscarp by Muslims.

This is a photo of the trapezoidal sockets cut about 9 feet high in the bedrock. They were cut between 650 and 900 AD by Muslims to support wooden beams for one of the roof systems in their buildings. Today, above the rockscarp is the Umariyya School, a Muslim school for boys. Herodian stones from the outside south wall of Fort Antonia can be seen in the south wall of the Umariyya School. A 13-foot ancient wall can be seen inside the southern rooms of the Umariyya School. This thick wall would have been the southern wall of Fort Antonia. To the east of the schoo is another building that still has six and a half feet of a Herodian pilaster, which would have decorated the outside of the Jewish Temple Mount wall in the first century.

Three portions of Herod’s Phasael tower can be seen in the photo to the left. The lower portion is built on an incline like a glacis (an artificial slope built against a fortification for military defense). The middle portion is part of Herod’s original tower of Phasael built around 20 BC, along with the base. The upper portion was built by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1537.

Herod built three towers on the north side of his palace, which sat along the inside of the west wall of the city of Jerusalem. The towers were called:

The Struthion Pool measures about 171 by 46 feet and sets below the pavement of the plaza and market place supported by the vaulted arches built by Hadrian for his city Aelia Capitolina in 135 AD. After Hadrian took the city in 135 he covered it with an arched roof to create water cisterns below, and then built a marketplace above. Hadrian’s arches split the pool into two halves. The pool was eventually forgotter until the Convent of the Sisters of Zion was built on this location in the 1800’s, and the pools were exposed. Today the Struthion Pool still collects water and can be seen at the north end of the Western Wall Tunnels.

This is one of the vaulted arches built in 135 AD to cover this open aired Struthion Pool. The opening or hole seen in the top of the arch provided access from the pavement above to the water below by lowering a bucket on a rope.

An ancient olive tree grows in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The Ecce Homo Arch remaining from the Roman attacl on Fort Antonia in 70 AD. In this photo looking east, the Convent of the Sisters of Zion is on the right. One side of the original arch is still seen in the convent wall. The arch that supported the ramp the Romans used to attack Fort Antonia still stands today and spans the Via Dolorosa. In 135 after Hadrian had defeated the Jews in the Second Jewish Revolt (Bar Kochba Revolt) this same arch was converted into a monument to his victory. It was similar in purpose to the Arch of Titus in Rome commemorating the 70 AD victory over the Jews. The Ecce Homo Arch was flanked by two smaller arches, one of which can still be seen in the basement of the Convent of the Sisters of Zion.

The Jews revolted against Rome in 132. They may have regained control of Jerusalem at that time, and while they held it, began to rebuild their temple on the Temple Mount. Two ancient documents speak of Hadrian destroying the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. One source is rabbinic material. The second comes from a remaining portion of “Chronicon Paschale”, a Christian chronicle written around 630 AD, which is ar

A close up of the stone outlined in white in the previous photo. This stone bears the inscription below.

Shops were located behind the sidewalk. Two of the arched shop fronts can still be seen (top left quadrant). Notice again the street pavement (lower left corner), the square street curb, the columns that still remain from the colonnade, the pedestrian sidewalk protected by the columns, the place where the covering would have been, and the remains of five shops and their walls. A map found on the floor of a Byzantine church from around 500 AD shows the Cardo as the main road of Jerusalem. The pillars in the photos below are detailed on this map from 1500 years ago. Also notice the so- called Eastern Cardo, which is just above the Cardo Maximus on this map. The Eastern Cardo only has one row of columns.

The Cardo built by the Romans (135-312) and used by the Byzantines. The road is in the middle of the photo and extends to the left past the edge. (Imagine it without the modern square pillars.) To the right are the original columns of the colonnaded street. To the right of the columns is the Roman sidewalk. Notice the Square curb. Curb, columns and sidewalk were also or the other side of this street. Beginning in 1967, major sections of this 1900-year-old street have been excavated, and are reused in today’s Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. The entire roadway was originally 74 feet wide (the road itself was 40 feet wide with colonnaded and covered sidewalks on both sides to protect pedestrians from traffic and the heat of the sun). Shops were located all along both sides of the street. Hadrian began building the Cardo in the north of the city at the Damascus Gate in 135 AD. Later, around 527, the Christian Emperor Justinian completed the road so that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was connected to the southern part of the city, past the Nea Church and the southern gate.

Part of the ancient Cardo that has been modernized. Notice the pavement and the ancient store fronts which are now home to modern shops. Toni is shopping under the Israeli flag on the right side. A very nice art shop that sells prints by local artists (at least one of whom also works in the shop) is on the right.

The smaller rocks in the wall were placed to block an ancient shop entrance.

Ancient pavement stones from the Cardo (top back) lay beside modern reconstructions (front bottom).

Notice the modern city street level is about 20 feet above the street level of 135 AD. See the modern street in the top left, with a stairway coming down to the Cardo. Ancient arched shop fronts and their vaulted rooms along the sidewalk of the Cardo in ancient Aelia Capitolina, the Roman Jerusalem.

The Madaba map, a detailed mosaic from 542-570 found on a Byzantine church floor in Jordan, shows the location of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Nea Church, the Cardo Street and much more. One the details portrayed on the Madaba map is another Roman street to the east of the main Cardo street, which has thus been called the Eastern Cardo Street In 2007 a major colonnaded street running under the west portion of the Western Wall Prayer Plaza was uncovered during the early construction stages of a This Roman road was just uncovered in 2007 near the Western Wall Plaza (top edge of this photo). The pavement and remains of walls from Aelia Capitolina, the Roman city rebuilt over Jerusalem (135-325 AD) can be seen here. The plans now are to continue with the excavation, and then build the public building over the area, with a museum of the Roman city and street in the lower level of the building. The pavement stones are set diagonally in typical Roman style, which may have helped prevent wagons from slipping. There is also a drainage system built under the pavement stones. On the Madaba map this street runs northwest along the Tyropoean Valley to a place where it connects with the Cardo street in a large paved area with a large Roman pillar in front of the Damascus Gate (which was known as the New Gate — i.e., Nea Gate — in the year 333 AD) in the north.

For several reasons, it appears that Justinian believed he was building a new Temple to replace Solomon’s and Herod’s. It is highly probably that the Nea Church was built to hold the Temple treasures taken from Herod’s Temple by the Romans in 70 AD.

The Golden Lamp Stand from Herod's Temple of 70 AD. A close up of the triumphal procession. Notice the Candle Stand and the two trumpets which form an “X” over the Table of Showbread as the Romans carry them into Rome. (Photo by Bill Wallander)

Images from the inside of the Arch of Titus showing the Roman triumphal procession into Rome with the Temple Treasures. (Photo by Bill Wallander) After these triumphs were over, and after the affairs of the Romans were settled on the surest foundations, Vespasian resolved to build a Temple to Peace, which was finished in so short a time, and in so glorious a manner, as was beyond all human expectation and opinion: for he having now by Providence a vast quantity of wealth, besides what he had formerly gained in his other exploits, he had this temple adorned with pictures and statues; for in this temple were collected and deposited all such rarities as men aforetime used to wander all over the habitable world to see, when they had a desire to see one of them after another; he also laid up therein those golden vessels and instruments that were taken out of the Jewish temple, as ensigns of his glory. But still he gave order that they should lay up their Law, and the purple veils of the holy place, in the royal palace itself, and keep them there.

Photo of the outside the southeast corner of the Nea Church, which contains the southern apse of the church on the inside. The current city wall runs on top of the Nea Church, as can be seen in this photo. Although plundered and burnt, we know that the remains of the Nea Church continued to stand for several centuries, since it was described by pilgrim writers as still in use in 634 and 808. In fact, in 870 a monk stayed in what was called Charlemagne’s rebuilt Nea Church.

A diagram of the Nea Church. The three or four portions of remains that are visible today are marked with angled, parallel lines.

Inside the Nea Church. This photo shows the southern apse in the southeast corner.

An idea of how the Nea Church would have looked. The Nea church survives to a height of 26 feet, with walls that are over 20 feet thick. About 45 of the original 375 feet of wall still remain.

Looking northwest at the southeast corner of the Nea Church.

Looking southeast at the Dome of the Rock. The dome on the far right is the Dome of Ascension where early Muslim tradition says Muhammad ascended into heaven. Today the Muslim claim has changed to say he ascended from the rock under the Dome of the Rock. The dome on the left of the photo is the Dome of the Chain, which is where the Altar of Burnt Offering was located, in front of the Jewish Temple. The other smaller domes and small rock structures are wells leading down to some of the many cisterns under the Temple Mount. The octagonal structure of the Dome of the Rock also mimics the shape that early Christians used to encircle and enshrine important holy sites. The remains of an ancient octagonal church built over the house of Peter in Capernaum are an example of this. The Dome was built over the site of the Jewish temple for the same reason. In fact, from the day the Dome of the Rock was built, it has been seen by Muslims as a replacement of the Jewish Temple on the very site of the temples built by Solomon, Zerubbabel and Herod.

But, Jerusalem is not mentioned in this passage, nor is Jerusalem ever mentioned anywhere in the Koran. The Dome of the Rock was built 200 years before this tradition began to be told, so although this is the reason given for where it was built, that cannot be right.

The inside glimmers with polished marble, stained- glass windows, golden mosaics and woodwork. Two series of arches supported by columns, called arcades, enclose the rock mass that is the top of the original Mount Moriah in the center of the building.

The dome on the Dome of the Rock was covered with an aluminum and bronze alloy in 1960. In 1998 it was covered with 176 pounds of gold (the value in 2010 dollars was $3,043,087) that was donated by King Hussein of Jordan. The diameter of this dome is 66 feet compared to the 69.5 foot width of the dome on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which the builders attempted to imitate. This dome is 67 feet high, and the dome of the Holy Sepulcher rises 69 feet.

Acrescent moon whose tips touch, creating a full moon, sets atop the dome of the Dome of the Rock. The moon is a traditional symbol of the moon-gods throughout the ancient Middle East throughout history. The Sumerians worshipped the moon-god named Sin whose symbol was the crescent moon. The temple of Sin has been excavated in Abraham’s old city of Ur. YHWH told Abraham to leave his culture, his land and his family who were worshippers of this pagan moon-god (Genesis 12:1; Joshua 24:2). Throughout the Old Testament worship of the moon-god and other heavenly hosts is forbidden and met with judgment:

Toni ascends the wooden ramp over the Western Wall up to the Morocco Gate, which is the only entrance to the Temple Mount for non-Muslims. Muslim Temple Mount: Al-Haram al-Sharif, or “The Nobel Sanctuary” (Muslim)

This is the layout of the 35 acres on the Temple Mount today. The Muslims call this “The Noble Sanctuary,” or “Al-Haram al-Sharif.” Today the Dome of the Rock sets where the Jewish Temple used to be, and the Dome of the Chain where the Altar of Burnt Offering was. The Morocco Gate (also, Mugrabi Gate and Gate of the Moors — or in Arabic Bab al-Magharbeh, and in Hebrew: Shaar HaMughrabim) is located on the Western Wall. Barclay's Gate was covered up over time as the aground outside the Temple Mount rose The Arabic and English sign for the Morocco Gate is posted in painted tile.

A view of the southern wall of the Temple Mount with the Cup fountain behind and the Al-Aqsa Mosque to the right. Notice the pavement stones. Herod’s Temple Mount stones are about 3 feet below these. above the lintel of the gate. Anew gate called Bab al-Magharbeh was installed in the Western Wall above the level of the Barclay Gate. The local residents of this part of Jerusalem at that time had come from Morocco, so the gate was named for them. This gate remains open today. It is the only entrance to the Temple Mount non-Muslims are allowed to use.

Standing in the southeast corner of the Temple Mount looking northwest at the Dome of the Rock. This photo was taken from the southeast corner of the Temple Mount wall looking west. Toni is walking toward ‘he southern wall. The Al-Aqsa Mosque with its dome is ‘he building in the center of the photo. Notice the wide 9pen space, but also the trees to the right. In certain 9laces on the Temple Mount there are many trees, ncluding both older trees and newly planted ones.

Looking east at the southeast corner of the Temple Mount. The Mount of Olives is in the background. Solomon's Stables are directly below. The Triple Gate is to the right and down (on the other side of the wall).

This photo was taken standing against the southern wall of the Temple Mount between the Double Gate and the Triple Gate, looking north-northwest. The Al- Aqsa Mosque is on the left, and the Dome of the Rock is in front and to the right of center. From 363 until 638 there was no building activity on the Temple Mount under the Christian emperors of Rome or Byzantium.

Looking west between the Dome of the Rock on the lef and the northern wall on the right. Standing to the north of the Dome of the Rock looking south through the trees.

Beginning in 1996 the Muslim Wagf (the Muslim group that is charged with overseeing the Temple Mount) began working on and under the Temple Mount to create this large stairway down into what the Crusaders called "Solomon's Stables". There was no archaeological oversight of this enormous project, although much ancient soil and all its archaeological remains were removed with bulldozers and other types of heavy equipment. “The Jews have no claim to the whole area of the Haram al-Sharif. They [the Israelis} excavated everywhere and they didn't find a single stone from the Temple [of Solomon], just some stones from the Temple of Herod. (Jerusalem’s Temple Mount: From Solomon to the Golden Dome, by Hershel Shanks, The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc., 2007, page 3.)

The interior of the Dome of the Rock also includes mosaics with tree, foliage, bush, jewel and floral motifs.

The Muslims claim that there is an ancient mosque in Solomon's Stables on the other side (right/south) of the large arched doors at the bottom of the staircase. While it is not an ancient mosque, by the time the illegal and unauthorized construction was done, it did house the Marwani Musalla Mosque, which can hold up to 7,000 people. The excavated area that we see in this photo is 18,000 square feet large and 36 feet deep. In 2001, Israeli police watched bulldozers destroy ancient structures. The archaeological soil was removed in hundreds of truck loads and dumped into in the Kidron Valley. There are reports that remains from the 700’s BC and from the Solomon’s Temple, Hasmonean symbols, decorated Temple stones with ancient Hebrew inscriptions, and innumerable potsherds and pottery from both Herod’s Temple and the Roman period were uncovered during these destructive digs on the Temple Mount.

A supply pile of construction material still lies outside the fence near the new staircase down into the new mosque.

This photo was taken on the Muslim platform where the Dome of the Rock stands. The Herodian pavement is about 3 feet below this pavement. This view is looking north toward where the eastern courtyard of the Temple would have been. The Mount of Olives is to the right (east). To the left on the edge of the photo, where the columns of the Dome of the Chain are seen, is where the activities of Israel’s Altar of Burnt Offering would have occurred. The Temple, now the Dome of the Rock, is a little further to the left of this photo.

A close up of the inside of the blocked Golden Gate on the east side of the Temple Mount. Inside the Golden Gate, or Eastern Gate. This photo is looking east. Notice that if the Gates were not blocked, a person entering would have to ascend a stairway to reach the ground level of the Temple Mount.

A view looking over the Kidron Valley at the Mount of Olives from the Temple Mount platform a few feet in front of the location of the Altar of Burnt Offering. The Red Heifer was sacrificed on the summit of the Mount Olives, so the High Priest who offered that sacrifice could have looked directly into the Temple. The Temple would be directly behind me when | took this photo.

El Kas, or The Cup, used for Muslim purification. It is in front of Al-Aqsa (in the background) and the Dome of the Rock.

Solomon began to build the House of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. - 2 Chronicles 3:1 The Dome of Ascension as viewed from west- northwest looking east-southeast. According to early Muslim tradition Muhammad ascended into heaven from here. The Mount of Olives is in the background, and the edge of the Dome of the Chain is in the middle of the right edge of this photo.

The northwest stairs that take people up to the Muslim platform from the ground level of the Temple Mount. Notice, as mentioned earlier, the bottom row of steps that are the same level as the Temple Mount pavement stones. This is the outside of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount of the Old Testament and of the Hasmoneans. It is not running in a straight line with the Muslim platform seen in the background.

These are the northwest steps from the Temple Moun pavement up to the Muslim platform. The small dome at the top of the stairs is the Dome of Ascension. This is where Muhammad's legendary ascent into Heaven supposedly began.

This is the Ablution Gate, or Bab al-Matarah, which is located on the west side of the Temple Mount and leads into the Muslim Quarter of the city. Directly behind me when | took this photo was the stairway seen in the next photo that leads up to the west side of the Dome of the Rock.

Along the western wall of the Temple Mount on the inside looking south. A staircase leading up to the Dome of the Rock from the west side, with the Ablution Gate (Bab al-Matarah) behind.

This church dedicated to St. Anne preserves the original design and construction of a Crusader church built in 1138 AD. On the right corner of the church is the Bell tower.

A window covering in the church that is almost 900 years old. The Crusader-style domed ceiling inside St. Anne's Church.

A close up of the altar of St. Anne’s, the Crusader church.

Looking at the altar at the front, on the inside of the church. The Arabic inscription of Saladin from July 25, 1192 is just above the door. It commemorates the conversion of this church into a Muslim theological school just 54 years after the Crusaders finished building it.

Looking down from the west side of the Old City at Sultan’s Pool. To the left (south) behind the bleachers is the ancient dam that held the water. Today this site that was used for sporting events in Herod’s day is again a place for entertainment - concerts and other open air shows. Looking west at Sultan's Pool. On the far side, the Herodian aqueduct from Bethlehem approaches the pool and turns right (north) before turning back west to enter the city. The pool sets in the bottom of the Hinnom Valley with a dam built across the south end (just off the left end of this photo). During the time of Herod this area may have been the hippodrome mentioned by Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, 15:8:1) and used for entertainment such as chariot races and horse races.

This is a model of the Citadel today. stood before Herod Antipas in this citadel on the night he was betrayed. The Jewish revolt began here in 66 AD when Jewish rebels attacked and burnt the palace, and it was also the headquarters of the Tenth Roman Legion for 200 years after that revolt. The Crusaders and the Muslims used this location as well, rebuilding the towers and walls, and adding more of their own. On the west side of the Old City beside the Jaffa Gate are the remains of the Citadel, which served as a fortress to defend the northwest side of the ancient city of Jerusalem. The Hasmoneans were the first to defend this western portion of the city with a wall around 150 BC. Herod built his royal palace and three towers (Hippicus, Phasael and Mariamne) here. Jesus

This is a view looking south at the wall line used by the Hasmoneans when they originally enclosed this area. Herod then reinforced the wall and its towers. This line of wall continues south and connects with the wall that we see today (Suleiman’s Wall from 1535) that is just south of the tall Muslim mineret in the background.

A close up of a section of the wall built by the Hasmoneans around 150 BC. _ooking down at some of the residences that were buil nside the citadel wall.

The so-called (and erroneously called) Tower of David is a Muslim minaret located in the Citadel. It is a familiar landmark and easily recognizable in Jerusalem. A view from the top of the Citadel looking south along the western wall of the Old City.

A corridor that runs around the top of a tower in the Citadel next to the Jaffa Gate. It dates from the 1500's and held archers and other defenders. A Hasmonean Tower that sat on the outside of the Hasmonean wall.

This final section is a collection of things that need to be highlighted since they shed light on the history of Jerusalem, but were not covered elsewhere in this book.

The Roman inscribed Delta which represents the number 4. This would have been the fourth column in a series of columns. ‘his is an Attic base of a Roman column next to the ‘column above. The number 4 is inscribed on the econd layer on the coved base as “A”, which is the sreek letter Delta. The number indicates that this olumn base was the fourth in a row of columns. It has jot yet been determined which building these columns elonged to.

A Roman column stands in the Batei Mahase Square with the arches of the Rothschild House (built in 1871) in the background. Scratched on the drum of this lonic capital is the Roman numeral 9, written “VIII”, The number 9 is a reference number engraved by the designers of the column to indicate to the builders where this column should be positioned. The placement of the number on the drum indicates that this portion of the column was positioned at the top of < column that could have been 30 feet tall.

A Roman street game marked in the pavement of the Cardo in the Jewish Quarter. The square shapes cut inside of each other provided the playing spaces of a game used sometime after 135 AD.

The square Roman game on the original Cardo pavement stones.

An ancient wine press, or possibly a well that provided access to a cistern below, sets in the modern street of the Jewish Quarter as large planter for a tree.

The original Cardo pavement is preserved in this photo with the Roman game board cut into the lower left stone of the original street .

This is the view of what is called "Hezekiah's Pool" but is thought to be a reservoir from the time of Herod that received water from aqueducts that are still visible outside the Jaffa Gate. It also may have been a quarry outside the city where stones were cut for an Old Testament wall to the east of here. It is located in the Christian Quarter and in this photo is viewed from the Petra Hotel which is just inside the Jaffa Gate across from the Citadel. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is not in this photo but is just off the top edge. At one time the courtyard around the reservoir was encircled with inns and rest stops for travels and royal couriers. Today these buildings are workshops, and the pool is a rubbish dump. This site has never been excavated, but there are plans to do so in the future.

This is a photo of the Golden Candle Stand prepared by The Temple Institute specifically for use on the Temple Mount in the next Temple. All the furniture, utensils and clothing required for the operation of the Jewish Temple have been prepared by The Temple Institute and are ready to be moved to the Temple Mount when the time comes. This includes the recently completed stone altar that is waiting to be moved to the Temple Mount even before the Temple is built, so that sacrifices may begin as soon as possible.

Jonathan Grossman

VT 69 (2019), pp. 46-59, 2019

One of the most cryptic narratives in Samuel is the story of David's conquest of the city of Jebus-Jerusalem. This paper proposes that David did not conquer the city through battle, but through the Jebusites' peaceful surrender. This understanding illuminates the meaning of the obscure reference to "the blind and the lame," as well as the word "ṣinnôr."

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Jerusalem, City of David (B)

Moran Hagbi

HA-ESI, 2015

Jerusalem, City of David (B) In June 2014, an archaeological excavation was conducted along the western edge of a paved Byzantine street ascending from the western slopes of the City of David hill to the Davidson Archeological Park (Permit No. A-7130; map ref. 222327-32/631338-61), prior to preparing the site for visitors. The excavation, in the Jerusalem Walls National Park, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and at the instigation of the Elad Association, was directed by J. Uziel and M. Hagbi, with the assistance of V. Essman and Y. Shmidov (surveying and drafting), A. Peretz (field photography), G. Berkowitz and A. Ajami (area supervision), N. Natanel and B. Cohen (safety), A Koren (engineering supervision), J. Sheffer (conservation engineering), I. Novoselesky (wet sieving) and Y. Gorin-Rosen (glass).

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"Did the Fortified Jerusalem of the Middle Bronze Just Vanish, and What Does This Say About King David?", The Bible and the Interpretation (April 2018)

David Gurevich

New Carbon-14 tests show that massive Middle Bronze fortifications near the Gihon Spring in Jerusalem shall not be regarded to this period anymore. The archaeological community is in a rage. If the Canaanite fortifications did not exist, how credible would be the biblical account of the United Monarchy?

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“And You Counted the Houses of Jerusalem and Pulled Houses Down to Fortify the Wall” (Isaiah 22:10): The Fortifications of Iron Age II Jerusalem in Light of New Discoveries in the City of David

Filip Vukosavović, ortal chalaf, Joe Uziel

New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and Its Region XIV, 2021

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Finkelstein, I. 2008. Jerusalem in the Persian (and Early Hellenistic) Period and the Wall of Nehemiah. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 32: 501-520.

Israel Finkelstein

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 2008

Knowledge of the archaeology of Jerusalem in the Persian (and Early Hellenistic) period-the size of the settlement and whether it was fortified-is crucial to understanding the history of the province of Yehud, the reality behind the book of Nehemiah and the process of compilation and redaction of certain biblical texts. It is therefore essential to look at the finds free of preconceptions (which may stem from the account in the book of Nehemiah) and only then attempt to merge archaeology and text.

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"Then they built up the City of David with a high, strong wall and strong towers, and it became their citadel" (I Maccabees 1:33). In: E. Meiron (ed.), City of David Studies of Ancient Jerusalem 11 (2016), pp. 19*-29*.

Doron Ben-Ami, Yana Tchekhanovets

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Review of Andrew G. Vaughn & Ann E. Killebrew, eds., Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period (Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series 18; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003) in: Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (2006).

Carl S Ehrlich

Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, 2006

This important collection of essays is based on papers held in 1998-2001 during the annual meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature's "Consultation on Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology." Originating from a sense of despair that the fields of biblical studies and archaeology are becoming increasingly estranged from one another, this volume attempts to bridge this perceived chasm by bringing together archaeologists and biblicists to discuss issues concerning the history of Jerusalem in the Iron Age.

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Finkelstein, I., Koch, I., and Lipschits, O. 2011. The Mound on the Mount: A Solution to the “Problem with Jerusalem”. Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 11.

Ido Koch, Oded Lipschits

There are two solutions for the “problem with Jerusalem”—the fact that archaeology does not supply enough data for several periods in the second and first millennia B.C.E. which are well documented by textual material. According to the first, the acropolis, with the temple and the palace only, was located on the Temple Mount and the town itself extended over the ridge of the City of David. This means that in the Late Bronze, Iron I, Iron IIA, Persian and early Hellenistic period Jerusalem was a small, sparsely settled settlement. In this article, we suggest a second solution to the quandary: The original mound of Jerusalem—that is, the acropolis and the settlement—which had been located on the Temple Mount, was boxed in under the Herodian platform in the late first century B.C.E. This theoretical mound could have covered a significant area of ca. 5 hectares—the size of the larger Bronze and Iron Age mounds in the hill country. It was probably fortified in the Middle Bronze Age, and again in the late Iron IIA in parallel to the fortification of important towns in the countryside of Judah, mainly Lachish, Tel Beer-sheba and Mizpah. This mound on the Temple Mount was the sole location of the town in the Middle Bronze, Late Bronze, Iron I, Iron IIA, Persian and early Hellenistic periods. In all these periods activity in the City of David was meager and restricted to the central part of the ridge, mainly its eastern side near the Gihon spring. In two periods—the Iron IIB and the late Hellenistic—the settlement expanded to include the southeastern ridge (the City of David) and the southwestern hill; the new quarters were fortified, but there was no need to build a city-wall in the western side of the City of David, as this line ran in the middle of the city.

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Jerusalem, City of David (A)

Moran Hagbi

HA-ESI, 2015

Jerusalem, City of David (A) In November 2014, a building in the Aderet Complex on the City of David hill was renovated (map ref. 222420/631102; Fig. 1). The work, financed by the 'Elad Foundation, was supervised by J. Uziel and M. Hagbi (field photography), with the assistance of V. Essman and Y. Shmidov (surveying and drafting) and N. Mizrahi (foreman).

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Judah and Jerusalem. Reflections on the Relationship between Tribe and City and the Role of Jerusalem in Judah

Hermann Michael Niemann

Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins, 2019

Abstract Was Jerusalem a capital of Judah in the sense that its central place status was accepted by the surrounding tribal groups of the Judahite mountains? Was Jerusalem integral to the tribe of Judah? The coupling of “Jerusalem and Judah” (and vice versa) suggests a link between the two terms while maintaining the difference between the two entities. Jerusalem was no more than a relatively modest residence of the House of David for at least two centuries. Even after its rise to metropolis at the end of the 8th cent. B.C.E., the city remained apart from the clans of the Judahite mountains until the demise of the Davidic state. The clans in turn remained distant from Jerusalem, sporadically exercising their influence to change a ruler. The term “tribe of Judah” or the image of a “royal tribe” (Gen 49:8 –12) seems to be a creation of Davidic integrative state ideology. It was aimed at uniting the clans of the Judahite mountains and binding them to the “House of David”. This was necessary, because the Davidic dynasty originated from the Ephrath clan in Benjamin and was more closely connected to the region north of Jerusalem. It is doubtful whether a tribe of Judah existed outside the royal ideology in monarchic times. The role that Jerusalem played in relation to Judah corresponds structurally and functionally to the role Samaria played in Israel. Samaria was also a residence of the military leaders of the northern tribes since the time of Omri, outside the tribal territories and independent of them.

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Debating Khirbet Qeiyafa: A Fortified City in Judah from the Time of King David

Igor Kreimerman, Peter Zilberg

Debating Khirbet Qeiyafa: A fortified City in Judah from the Time of King David, 2016

Garfinkel, Y., Kreimerman, I., and Zilberg, P. 2016: Debating Khirbet Qeiyafa: A fortified City in Judah from the Time of King David. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

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Defending the Middle Ground: The Walls of Jerusalem in Iron Age I and IIA

Greg Wightman

Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins, 2022

This paper presents a critical synopsis of excavations by K. M. KENYON and E. MAZAR (and to a lesser extent Y. SHILOH and D. BEN-AMI and Y. TCHEKHANOVETS) on the Ophel and on the summit and upper east slope of the City of David, with a view to reassessing the evolution of the fortifications of Jerusalem from the 11 th to 9 th cent. B.C.E. By extension, the paper also addresses the nature and extent of Jerusalem across those centuries and the contribution of Jerusalem to the problem of early Israelite state formation. Few serious attempts have been made to integrate the results of MAZAR's excavations on the summit with the earlier, contiguous, work by KENYON. As for MAZAR's Ophel excavations, their recent final publication adds important new data that warrant a critical evaluation of MAZAR's characterization and dating of the remains. The paper concludes with a rebuttal of the view that Jerusalem was a small, unfortified settlement before the 8 th cent. B.C.E.

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Lipschits, O. 2001. Judah, Jerusalem and the Temple (586-539 B.C.). Transeuphraténe 22: 129-142.

Oded Lipschits

Les échos des événements de la campagne de Sannéchérib et le souvenir du salut de Jérusalem devant les Assyriens furent interprétés, après de nombreuses générations, comme la preuve irréfutable de la réalisation du pouvoir de D-ieu sur la terre, et conforta la foi indéfectible en la protection de D-ieu pour sa cité. Parmi les dirigeants politiques, militaires et religieux à Jérusalem, la croyance était répandue que Jérusalem demeurait sûre et ne tomberait jamais sous le joug de l'oppresseur et de l'ennemi. Cette perception conduisit à lever certaines des restrictions caractéristiques des dirigeants d'un petit royaume durant toutes ses années d'existence, et autorisa un large degré de liberté politique et militaire, précisément à une période où une telle précaution était vitale.

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David's Jerusalem: A Sense of Place. NEA 76.1 (2013): 4-15.

Dan Pioske

Near Eastern Archaeology, 2013

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Beyond the Walls: New Findings on the Eastern Slope of the City of David and their Significance for Understanding the Urban Development of Late Iron Age Jerusalem

ortal chalaf, Joe Uziel

CITY OF DAVID STUDIES OF ANCIENT JERUSALEM, 2018

Beyond the Walls New Findings on the Eastern Slope of the City of David and their Significance for Understanding the Urban Development of Late Iron Age Jerusalem

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Maeir, A. M. 2017. Chapter 15. The Southern Kingdom of Judah: Surrounded by Enemies. Pp. 391–412 in The Bible in Archaeology and History, eds. J. Ebeling, et al. Baylor University Press (photocopy without bibliography)

Aren M . Maeir

Survey of the archaeology of the Kingdom of Judah from the late 10th thru the early 6th cent. BCE

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The Temple Mount in the City of David: Ancient Authenticating Descriptions

Marilyn Sams

The article contains descriptions from the Talmud, Eusebius, Josippon ben Gorion, Maccabees, Philo, Aristeas, the Book of Enoch, Josephus, the Bible, pilgrimage accounts, and modern archaeologists to demonstrate the temple stood to the south, in the lower part of the city, in the middle, its east wall standing in the Kidron Valley, its west wall standing opposite the western hill "in the manner of a theater," with a natural spring enclosed within its precincts, its water originating on the east side of the temple and flowing south. All of these descriptions and more place the temple in the middle of the southeastern hill, over the Gihon Spring, on Mount Zion, in the City of David.

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Finkelstein, I., Herzog, Z., Singer-Avitz, L. and Ussishkin, D. 2007. Has the Palace of King David in Jerusalem been Found? Tel Aviv 34: 142-164.

Israel Finkelstein

Tel Aviv , 2007

Recent excavations at the City of David have revealed a set of massive walls constructed of large undressed stones. Excavator Eilat Mazar has presented them as the remains of a single building, which she labelled the 'Large Stone Structure'. Mazar interpreted the 'Large Stone Structure' as part of a big construction complex, which had also included the 'Stepped Stone Structure' on the slope. She dated her 'Large Stone Structure' to ca. 1000 BCE and identified it as the palace of King David. We argue that: (1) the walls unearthed by Mazar do not belong to a single building; (2) the more elaborate walls may be associated with elements uncovered by A1acalister and Duncan in the 1920s and should possibly be dated to the Hellenistic period; (3) the 'Stepped Stone Structure' represents at least two phases of construction—the lower (downslope) and earlier, possibly dating to the Iron IIA in the 9th century BCE, and the later (which connects to the Hasmonaean First Wall upslope) dating to the Hellenistic period.

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David's Stronghold and Samson's Rock of Etam, I. Provan and M. Boda (eds.), Let us Go up to Zion. Essays in Honour of H. G. M. Williamson on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday (VTS 153), Leiden and Boston 2012, 431-440.

Nadav Na'aman

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Jezreel Military Headquarters. In Biblical Illustrator Fall 2016:22-26.

Deborah Cantrell

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