Citadel of David

July 7, 2013  Sunday, part 2

I've added a couple of videos to the post for June 18th.  To watch Pete slide into and out of the "Tomb of the Shroud", go here and scroll down to near the end of the post.

After our visit at the Armenian Church, we finished our day at the Tower of David, also known as the Citadel of David.  It's on the west side of the Old City within the Armenian area, just inside Jaffa Gate.

The structures include the remnants of a tower built by Herod the Great in the 1st century BC, Moslem constructions for the 7th century AD, walls and a tower built by the Crusaders in the 11th century, various other Moslem modifications, and 16th century additions by the Ottomans including a minaret and mosque.  The name "Tower of David" was first used for the complex during the Ottoman period, although the site had been associated with Kings David and Solomon long before Herod's time.

We wish we had visited this place when we first arrived in Jerusalem, and recommend that it be one of the first stops on everyone's itinerary.  The complex has been converted to a museum, and the exhibits provide an excellent history of the region.  We had only an hour for our tour, and didn't get to see everything we wanted to see.

Visitors first encounter an "archaeological garden", complete with explanatory map and diagram.  Parts of this excavation date back 2700 years.

The tower provides an excellent view across the crowded Old City and the Mount of Olives, including (surprise) the BYU Center on Mount Scopus, visible beyond the pyramid-shaped tower.   We looking east in this photo.  The two grey domes on the left are the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the golden Dome of the Rock is on the right and the eastern edge of the city.  It's funny to see those satellite dishes atop these ancient buildings.

These diagrams were very helpful

 Now we're looking west to the modern city of Jerusalem.  Almost everything in Jerusalem is the same limestone color.

To the southwest, we can see the controversial Israeli-built barrier wall.

Looking to the north over the Old City, we can see some Armenian shops on the right and the Jaffa Gate on the left.  The gate as it is today is actually a breach in the wall, created in 1898 so that the German Emperor Wilhelm II could ride through it on his white horse.

Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!

Touring this castle-like structure was like time-travel through the history of Jerusalem and its surroundings, beginning about 1200 BC.  We took almost 100 photos, but I post only a few here.  There were lots of displays like this:

This is what the city may have looked like at the time of David and Solomon, roughly 1000-900 BC.

The description of the next display reads as follows:  

"Since the foundation of Jerusalem, the Gihon spring, at the foot of its eastern hill, had been the city's main water source.  During the united monarchy, a shaft to the spring was dug within the walls.
As the Assyrian army approached in 701 BCE, King Hezekiah decided to ensure a constant supply of water into the city to withstand the siege.  He blocked the external entrance to the Gihon spring and hewed a tunnel in the rock under the city.  Inside the new city walls he built, the water flowed through the tunnel into the Pool of Siloam."

The blue line indicates the route of Hezekiah's Tunnel.  Two teams of laborers worked on the tunnel, one starting at each end, and they met in the middle!  The construction of the tunner is referred to several times in the Old Testament, and the meeting of the two teams of workers is described on an ancient inscription found inside the tunnel. We'll have more to say about this tunnel later on.

The museum takes us through the defeat of the Israelites and destruction of the first temple, Babylonian captivity, return to Jerusalem, and then the second temple period.  Jerusalem was sacked and the second temple was desecrated by Antiochus IV Ephiphanes in 167 BC.  Altars to Greek gods were erected inside the temple, animals prohibited to the Jews were sacrificed on them, and the Jews were forbidden to practice their religion.  The temple was recaptured by the Jews during the Maccabean Revolt.  The painting below depicts the cleansing and purification of the temple.  Pagan objects were removed and Jewish sacrificial offerings renewed.  The purification and restoration have been commemorated ever since in the Feast of the Dedication, or Hanukkah.

This diorama is an archaeologically-based reconstruction of the southwest entrance to the Temple Mount, the way it would have looked in King Herod's day, about 150 years after the Maccabees.  The large arch supporting the stairway is known as Robinson's Arch, named after the the archaeologist who deduced its existence from the ruins in 1838.

Here's a picture of a stone fragment that says "Place of Trumpeting".  We've seen the actual fragment in the Israel Museum.  So the idea is that a man with a trumpet would stand atop the temple.  Hmmmm....

King Herod greatly expanded the temple that was built in the 5th century BC by the Israelites who returned from Babylon.

Various maps show the changing contours of the city.

Christian origins were briefly mentioned.  A plaque had this to say:

"During his Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth was brought before the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate, judged, and crucified.  Three hundred years later the sites associated with his life and death became sacred to a new faith which developed out of Judaidm: Christianity." 

In 70 AD, the Romans leveled Jerusalem and completely destroyed the temple in retaliation for the Jewish rebellion of 68 AD.  This reproduction of part of the Arch of Titus (located in Rome), shows Roman looters carrying away the temple furnishings.

Our walk through history took us all the way to the 20th century.  Fascinating stuff for history buffs!

We're always happy to find a water fountain.  (That's the archaeological garden on the left side of the photo.)