City of David
Because of its importance not just to Jews, but to the West, excavating the City of David has engendered much hostility, speakers said at a Dec. 9 event.
A new tourist complex invites visitors to stay in 12 boutique apartments above the site believed to have been King David’s Palace.
The U.S. vice president described the period after the ceasefire-for-hostages deal concluded as “days of destiny” that are “changing the face of the Middle East.”
The technique, called a “technological breakthrough” by Tel Aviv University researchers, will facilitate the discovery and mapping of underground cavities, even through rock.
The stones of the ancient site “100% validate that the Jewish people not only belong here now, but they have belonged here for 4,000 years, since the time God said to Abraham: this is yours,” said U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
The newly uncovered structure suggests comprehensive urban planning for managing Jerusalem’s water supply as early as the late ninth century BCE and serves as clear evidence of the city’s power and sophistication.
At a special Cabinet session, the prime minister described the city as the raison d’être of Zionism and the Jewish state.
Israeli archaeologists say it is the second such find at the same site within the last year.
The site, near the Temple Mount, is the only known ritual structure from the period found in Jerusalem.
Items such as expensive oils, grape seeds and 2,000-year-old eggshells were discovered during an excavation near the City of David.
Archeologists believe they were “intended to protect the city from the north—the only weak point of the City of David slope.”
Discoveries at the site “are beginning to paint a new picture of the nature and stature of Jerusalem’s inhabitants in the Early Hellenistic Period,” said TAU professor Yuval Gadot.
