Tower of David

For other uses, see Tower of David (disambiguation).
The Tower of David and the city walls

The Tower of David (Hebrew: מגדל דוד, romanized: Migdál Davíd), also known as the Citadel (Arabic: القلعة, romanized: al-Qala'a), is an ancient citadel and contemporary museum, located near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem.

The citadel that stands today dates to the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. It was built on the site of a series of earlier ancient fortifications of the Hasmonean, Herodian, Byzantine and Early Muslim periods, after being destroyed repeatedly during the last decades of Crusader presence in the Holy Land by their Muslim enemies.[1] It contains artifacts from the Iron Age including a quarry dated to the Second Temple period and pottery, fishbones, and other archaeological finds dating from the First Temple Period,[2] and is a venue for benefit events, craft shows, concerts, and sound-and-light performances.

Dan Bahat, an Israeli archaeologist, writes that the original three Hasmonean towers standing in this area of the city were altered by Herod, and that "The northeastern tower was replaced by a much larger, more massive tower, dubbed the "Tower of David" beginning in the 5th century C.E."[3] The name "Tower of David" migrated in the 19th century from the Herodian tower in the northeast of the citadel, to the 17th-century minaret at the opposite side of the citadel, and after 1967 has been officially adopted for the entire citadel.[4]

  1. ^ Murphy-O'Connor, Jerome (2008). The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700. Oxford Archaeological Guides (5 ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 23–24. ISBN 978-0-19-923666-4. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  2. ^ Ariel, Donald T. Ariel D.T. and De Groot A. eds. Excavations in the City of David Directed by Yigal Shiloh, 3. Stratigraphical, Environmental, and Other Reports (Qedem 33). Jerusalem 1992.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bahat was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Hawari, Mahmoud (2010). "The Citadel of Jerusalem: A Case Study in the Cultural Appropriation of Archaeology in Palestine". Present Pasts. 2 (1). London, England: University College London (UCL), Institute of Archaeology, Heritage Studies Section: 89–95 [94]. doi:10.5334/pp.25.