Excavations in the City of David, Jerusalem (1995-2010)

The City of David, the Gihon Spring, the Ophel, Mount Zion, the Valley of Ben Hinnom, the Kidron Valley are all located south and east of the Old City of Jerusalem. They are all cast in the shadows of the Temple Mount, all are engulfed in millennia of history and religion, and all are nestled in the city’s most beautiful, breathtaking and dramatic landscape.
It is here in this area that the city of Jerusalem was born. Here, towards the bottom of the Old City and near the Gihon Spring, the city’s only source of water and hence its raison d’être, that the ancient city grew, where a Canaanite culture that worshipped the god Shalem flourished and gave the city its name, Urušalim, which it bears to this day. It is here that David established his capital, and Solomon, his son and successor, built his Temple, in the light of which the Hebrew Bible was composed and the city burgeoned and in the shadow of which it fell into ruins. And it is here too where each successive period etched its own unique character and contribution.