A press release from TravelVideo.tv lists the evocative tours taking place in and around the City of David this summer. These include:
The Archeological Experience at the Emek Tzurim National Park: Discovering the Past Hidden in the Dust: A unique exploration of the Temple Mount’s glorious past, travelers will be able to sift through rubble that originated in ancient buildings atop the Temple Mount while learning about the artifacts from on-site archeologists and guides.
Tour of the biblical City of David: A tour bringing travelers through Jerusalem’s biblical sites and places where the city’s the most stirring, remarkable artifacts were unearthed. Tour guides will lead travelers through an impressive underground world in Warren’s Shaft, the city’s ancient water system, as well as an illuminated walk in the waters of the Gihon Spring that flows through Hezekiah’s Tunnel.
In the footsteps of the Pilgrims – New Discoveries and Revelations from the Second Temple Period: A tour leading travelers in the footsteps of the architects of the city and incorporating recent archeological discoveries as well as the Shiloah Pool and the Herodian Road.
Enchanted Jerusalem-the New Nighttime Experience at the City of David: The new evening tour of the City of David begins at the Hatzofeh lookout point emphasizing the unique, low position of the biblical City of David in comparison with Jerusalem’s Old City walls. The tour will conclude with an innovative light show projected onto various antiquities, telling the story of the City of David through movement and sound.
Twilight at the City of David: A magical three-hour tour in a special nighttime ambiance allowing travelers to view the city through a course of excavations including David’s Palace and Hezekiah’s Tunnel. The tour concludes with harp music under the ancient olive trees in the King’s Garden.
Following the Water to Jerusalem – Hasmonean Aqueduct Tour: A flashlight tour highlighting the two 2,000-year-old aqueducts constructed to bring water from the Pools of Solomon to the Temple Mount and Upper City. Travelers will also witness the incredible views of ancient Jerusalem and the sophisticated water system built by King Herod on 150 BCE.
Kidron Monuments Tour: A tour of the massive, elaborate monuments in the Kidron Valley around the Old City’s original municipal border between the City of David and the Mount of Olives.
The inauguration of a complex dating from the First and Second Temple periods on the Ophel has been widely reported, see for example here and here. In a previous post we mentioned that “The site was first excavated in the 1970′s under the direction of the late Prof. Benjamin Mazar and in the 1980′s and onward, Eilat Mazar has further excavated the site. The site has remains from the Israelite, Herodian (dismantled), Roman, Byzantine and Ummayad periods.”
The site is well known to me as I supervised the excavations of a large Herodian mansion in this area in 1975. My wife Kathleen also excavated in the same area. Moshe Feuer took over the supervision later on. Below the Herodian mansion, he discovered a substantial Iron Age structure that was tentatively identified by Prof. Benjamin Mazar as “The House of Millo”, mentioned in 2 Kings 12.20.
Leen (left) discussing the excavation results with Prof. Benjamin Mazar (with red hat) and Meir Ben-Dov, 1975.
Reporting on the inauguration, Todd Bolen asked the following question:
“I’d be curious to know if there are any other archaeologists who agree with Mazar’s identification of the structure she excavated as a gate. Some years ago it seemed that even those most sympathetic to her views did not follow her on this, but perhaps that has changed. I note that the press release does not state that this is a gate but that “Mazar suggests” that it is a gate.”
I will try to answer this question. While studying Warren’s plans of this area, it became clear to me that the excavated remains were connected with a large tower-like structure, dubbed by him “The Tower that lieth out” (Nehemiah 3.26). I tried to excavate this area which is located on the other side of the road, but was stopped by the religious authorities who claimed that a Medieval Jewish cemetery was located there, which subsequently proved to be correct.
Some 10 years later, under the direction of Prof. Benjamin Mazar and his granddaughter Eilat, the excavations were expanded to the east where a large structure of the First Temple period was found. When Eilat investigated the previously excavated area, she asked me to make the plans.
While working on the plans, I imposed symmetry on the remains and at that moment I thought that the structure excavated by Moshe Feuer could have been a gateway.
Moshe Feuer standing behind prof. Benjamin Mazar. Leen and his dog Simba in the foreground, 1975.
Working with Professor Benjamin Mazar was always a great pleasure as he often bounced off ideas during the many “brainstorming” sessions we had. I showed my preliminary ideas about the gate to Eilat, indicating the location where to excavate in order to prove that it was a gate. Instead of investigating the possibility, she invited the media the next day to announce that she had discovered the Water Gate! See Jerusalem Post report of April 22, 1986.
The Jerusalem Post reports that “Mazar believes the area is described in the Torah in the verse about King Solomon’s Temple: “… and the temple servants living on Ophel repaired to a point opposite the Water Gate on the east and the projecting tower” (Nehemiah 3:26). It may have been called the Water Gate because of the plethora of mikvaot in the area.”
This is a very uninformed statement, as Nehemiah 3 does not mention any temple, let alone Solomon’s Temple and the Book of Nehemiah is not part of the Torah (the five Books of Moses). The connection between the “Water Gate” and the mikvaot is untenable as the “gate” belongs to the First Temple period and the mikvaot to the Second Temple period. The earliest mikvaot date to the first century BC.
Excavating a Herodian (Second Temple period) mikveh in the Ophel area, 1975. Photo: Leen Ritmeyer
I no longer believe that the building in question is a gate, as the chambers do not resemble those of Iron Age gateways. The only complete chamber was stacked full with large storage jars which is also untypical of gateways. It would appear now that the building was a storage facility connected to a large domestic or public building.
Reading Nehemiah 3.26, it is clear that the “Water Gate” and “the tower that lieth out” are separate points along the wall. The Water Gate must therefore be located south of the tower (somewhere near the Gihon Spring). According to Warren’s excavations, this outlying tower consists of two elements, a large tower and a smaller L-shaped wall (called by Warren the “Extra Tower”). The latter was built apparently to strengthen the larger tower.
The archaeological remains in the Ophel area, showing the "Outlying Tower", the "Extra Tower", the water channel and the "gate". Drawing: Leen Ritmeyer.
As there are some structures in this area, which, according to Eilat, belong to the 10th century BC. and if the outlying tower, which has not been excavated, belongs to this period, then the L-shaped “Extra Tower” structure must be later.
As a water channel from the First Temple period Bethesda Pool enters the “outlying tower” from the northeast, I would suggest that the “Water Gate” building served as a water distribution point, possibly during the time of King Hezekiah after he conducted the water of the Gihon Spring to the Siloam Pool. This would have left the Ophel area without a water supply and therefore a new water distribution point (where the storage jars could have been used) may have been created here to meet the needs of the local population.
This report by Matti Friedman of the Associated Press, has been widely published today:
JERUSALEM – Underneath the crowded alleys and holy sites of old Jerusalem, hundreds of people are snaking at any given moment through tunnels, vaulted medieval chambers and Roman sewers in a rapidly expanding subterranean city invisible from the streets above.
At street level, the walled Old City is an energetic and fractious enclave with a physical landscape that is predominantly Islamic and a population that is mainly Arab.
Underground Jerusalem is different: Here the noise recedes, the fierce Middle Eastern sun disappears, and light comes from fluorescent bulbs. There is a smell of earth and mildew, and the geography recalls a Jewish city that existed 2,000 years ago.
Archaeological digs under the disputed Old City are a matter of immense sensitivity. For Israel, the tunnels are proof of the depth of Jewish roots here, and this has made the tunnels one of Jerusalem’s main tourist draws: The number of visitors, mostly Jews and Christians, has risen dramatically in recent years to more than a million visitors in 2010.
But many Palestinians, who reject Israel’s sovereignty in the city, see them as a threat to their own claims to Jerusalem. And some critics say they put an exaggerated focus on Jewish history.
A new underground link is opening within two months, and when it does, there will be more than a mile (two kilometers) of pathways beneath the city. Officials say at least one other major project is in the works. Soon, anyone so inclined will be able to spend much of their time in Jerusalem without seeing the sky.
Other tunnels are mentioned also, such as Hezekiah’s Tunnel, the Canaanite Tunnel and Zedekiah’s Cave, also known as Solomon’s Quarries near the Damascus Gate.
The next major project, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority, will follow the course of one of the city’s main Roman-era streets underneath the prayer plaza at the Western Wall. This route, scheduled for completion in three years, will link up with the Western Wall tunnel.
Although most of these tunnels and underground areas have been known for a long time, it is interesting to see that they have become a new underground tourist attraction.
The report then continues to describe the political impact that these underground excavations and tunnels have on the local population. You can read the whole report here.
In a previous post, we reported on State Comptroller’s report on the illegal activities by the Waqf on the Temple Mount. According to the website of the Temple Mount Faithful:
“The goal of the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement is the building of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in our lifetime in accordance with the Word of G-d and all the Hebrew prophets and the liberation of the Temple Mount from Arab (Islamic) occupation so that it may be consecrated to the Name of G-d.”
The Jerusalem Post reports that this group, led by Gershon Salomon, has petitioned the High Court to have the full report published:
Fearing mass-scale destruction of holy artifacts under the Temple Mount, the Temple Mount Faithful, a group that calls for the Jewish takeover of the site, petitioned the High Court on Thursday to order the full publication of the secret State Comptroller’s Report on excavation works being conducted at one of the holiest places in the world.
Citing “harm to Israel’s national security and possible harm to its foreign relations”, the High Court has so far refused to publish the complete report.
Recently we returned from a trip to Australia – hence the absence of blogs – and I was excited to receive this long-awaited book in the post.
Ronny Reich, Excavating the City of David – Where Jerusalem’s History Began
Ronny Reich has excavated in several locations in Jerusalem for over 40 years, starting in 1969 as surveyor on Prof. Nahman Avigad’s team in the Jewish Quarter (a position he held till 1978 when I took over this post, after he had left for the Israel Dept. of Antiquities and Museums) and in the City of David, together with his colleague Eli Shukron, since 1995.
This book is a fascinating account of the history of the City of David. The first part of the book recounts the activities of the many excavators who worked in this area and in the second part, Reich reconstructs the history of the City of David based on the results of all of the archaeological excavations.
The story of the early exploration begins with a description of the visit on April 17, 1838 by Edward Robinson to the Gihon Spring, the ever-flowing water source that determined the location of the City of David. This is followed by the account of Charles Warren’s daring walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel, which Reich prefers to call the Siloam Tunnel. Reich then examines the explorations of many other excavators, such as Schick, Bliss and Dickie, Weill, Macalister and Duncan, Kenyon, Shiloh and others. Each investigator added a little to our understanding of the history of this site and Reich’s useful analysis of these findings makes it easier to fit them into an overall picture of the development of the City of David.
His own and Shukron’s explorations added much to our understanding of the waterworks in this location, especially how the different components, such as the Siloam Tunnel and the different channels worked together. His explanation of the construction of the Siloam Tunnel and how Channel I was used as a “spirit level” to make sure that the water of the Gihon Spring flowed smoothly to the Siloam Pool makes for exciting reading.
The excavations round the Gihon Spring revealed that the spring and its approach from the city were strongly fortified in the Jebusite period. Two massive walls created a safe approach to a Rock-cut Pool from which water could be drawn.
This book was written, according to Reich, “First and foremost … for lay readers who love the history of Jerusalem”. I found Reich’s discussion of the historical interpretations of the different finds honest and frank. He acknowledges, however, that he is a skeptic and minimalist where the Biblical text is concerned and has difficulty reconciling the text and the archaeological remains. He discusses these problems in a special boxed section called “Biblical traditions: David, Solomon and the United Monarchy”, which is well worth reading and may help in an accurate examination of the Biblical text.
The book is illustrated with many beautiful photographs, but I would like to have seen more interpretative drawings showing how certain features fit together. The text is easy to read, but a final edit should have weeded out mistakes in spelling and syntax.
The book was published by the Israel Exploration Society in Jerusalem, it has 384 pages and 207 illustration (most of them in color), Hard Cover, and measures 10 x 7.5 inches. ISBN: 9789652210821
For my birthday last month, I received a magnificent tome called: City of David: The Story of Ancient Jerusalem by Ahron Horovitz (edited by Dr. Eyal Meiron), Jerusalem: Megalim-City of David Institute for Jerusalem Studies, 2009, 325 pp. Amazon price $56.07.
If you are considering requesting the book to be brought from Jerusalem, give a thought to your friend’s baggage allowance! The book is lavishly produced, quite large and very heavy. So heavy indeed (about 6 pounds) that it was cheaper to bring it 160 miles by car from London to Cardiff, where we live, than to send it by Royal Mail!
The book recounts the Biblical story of Jerusalem and uses the results of archaeological excavations to illustrate it.
Jane Cahill West, a senior staff archaeologist for the Hebrew University’s City of David project (1978-’85) directed by the late Yigal Shiloh, writes in her book review here:
One of the best features of the book is Horovitz’s ability to provide clear, concise descriptions of the debates that surround interpretation of Jerusalem’s most controversial archaeological remains, such as Warren’s Shaft, the Stepped Stone Structure, and the city’s fortifications. Reconstruction drawings depicting how the city may have looked at various stages of Biblical history are based primarily on the interpretation of fellow tour guide Eyal Meiron, while explanations for some of the most controversial features of Jerusalem’s water supply systems are those offered by Zvi Abells, a retired electrical engineer who devotes all his spare time to studying Jerusalem’s water systems. These reconstructions and interpretations offer perspectives on issues of contentious debate rarely seen in print.
This Thursday (14th of April, 2011) the 37th Annual Archaeological
Congress in Israel will be held at Bar-Ilan University. The
conference, as always, will be a combination of short lectures
presenting new finds and excavations, as well as topical studies (note that the afternoon sessions will be running in parallel halls).
This year, there were be sessions on the following topics:
1) Prehistory (9 to 11 am)
2) Archaeological Science (11:30 to 13:30)
3) New Directions in the Study of the Persian Period (14:30-16:30)
4) Feasting in the archaeological record (14:30-16:30)
5) New excavations and studies – early periods (17:00-19:00)
6) New excavations and studies – later periods (17:00-19:00).
The Jerusalem Post has an article called “Mythical Water Pipe Discovered”. In the accompanying video, tour guide Danny Herman explains the various components of the water system in the City of David and how it developed over the ages. If you haven’t been in the City of David for a while, you may find this video interesting.
Over the last 150 years or so, researchers have attempted to understand the water systems in Jerusalem and the City of David in particular. During the 19th Century, illustrious researchers, such as Wilson, Warren, Conder, Schick, Weill and others have discovered and recorded parts of underground water channels and tunnels, which were all connected with the Gihon Spring in one way or another. The discovery of a vertical shaft from inside the so-called Hezekiah’s Tunnel by Charles Warren, has since 1878 been identified with the ‘tsinnor’ by which Joab presumably climbed into the City of the Jebusites, so that David could capture it, according to the account in 2 Sam. 5. This has now been discounted by the latest excavators.
The first scientific recording of this water system in the 20th Century was done by Vincent, who accompanied the Parker Mission in 1911. He published very valuable plans and sections in ‘Jerusalem Sous Terre’ (1912). Later researchers, such as Kathleen Kenyon and Yigal Shiloh did further exploration of these tunnels and channels, but the most extensive research was done from the end of the 20th Century up till now by Ronnie Reich and Eli Shukron. Despite all their investigations, it is not altogether clear how all the different channels, pools and reservoirs work together, but we are a lot closer to understanding the water systems now than ever before.
The Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority report the following:
For those of you who will be in Israel on Tuesday, June 21st, 2011, please join us at the festive opening ceremony for the First Temple Period Archaeological Site recently excavated, conserved and made accessible to visitors in the Jerusalem Archaeological Park.
This fabulous project, near the southern wall of the Temple Mount enclosure, is made possible through the exemplary generosity of Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman.
The announcement is accompanied by this video:
The site was first excavated in the 1970’s under the direction of the late Prof. Benjamin Mazar and in the 1980’s and onward, Eilat Mazar has further excavated the site. The site has remains from the Israelite, Herodian (dismantled), Roman, Byzantine and Ummayad periods.
The plan shows the walkways (brown) to be used by visitors, once the site is open.
