Jerusalem is high up in the mountains of Judea. Its importance to the three great monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) cannot be explained by its location on an important trade route, its strategic position, or even its position in the middle of a flourishing civilisation. The only explanation is the sacred nature of the city. The fact that its foundation predates both the biblically described City of David and the foundation of the First Temple 3,000,000 years ago. Ancient Jerusalem lies beneath the present city. The first settlements of Jerusalem are known from written sources and archaeological finds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the 1860s, more than 100 excavations have sought its secrets. Jerusalem, in the middle of the Judean mountains, has always occupied a defensive position. It was essentially built on two ridges. It is bounded on the east by the steep-sided Kidron Valley, on the south-west by the Hinnom Valley and in the middle by the Tyropoion Valley. The city's natural defences are weakest in the north, where the hillsides are gentle slopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The structure of the city is still characterised by the four quarters into which Hadrian divided it in the second century, when he cut it in two north-south with the promenade Cardo Maximus. And in the east-west direction by another large road, the Decumanus. The walls of the city of Jerusalem, still visible today, date from the reign of the Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Great. The sultan began new fortifications in 1537, and completed them three years later, using the earlier walls and all their sections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seven gates were cut in the walls of Jerusalem. The most spectacular of these is the Damascus Gate, probably the third, dating from the time of the northern wall built by Herod Agrippa in 40-41. Hadrian originally built a gate here in the second century AD: he intended it as the monumental entrance to the new Roman city of Aelia Capitolina. This original gate has been excavated and is visible under the present Damascus Gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The New Gate was built in the late 19th century to provide access to the Christian quarter. The Jaffa Gate, so called because the road from under it leads to Jaffa. It used to be L-shaped, but was widened in 1989 during an official visit by Emperor William II. The Sion Gate overlooks Mount Sion. Its Arabic name is Bab Nabi Daud, the gate of the Prophet David. The next gate to the south is the Dung Gate, named because it was used to carry out the city's garbage. It was also called Bab el-Magharbe by the Arabs, as the Mugrabis quarter lay directly behind it. North of the Temple Mount is the St Stephen's Gate. According to legend, this is where St Stephen was stoned. It is also called the Lion Gate, after the lion guarding the entrance from both sides. The Herod's Gate is so named because in the Middle Ages, it was believed that the palace near it was destroyed during the First Jewish Revolt, the ruins of the towers were preserved, but the area to the south became the campsite of the Xth Legion. In the Byzantine era, pilgrims to the Holy City identified these fortifications with the Palace of David. The Tower of David became a symbol of the return to Jerusalem and Zion and is now home to the Jerusalem History Museum.\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jerusalem, the holy city of the three great monotheistic religions, dates back more than 3000 years. Discover its history, geography, urban structure and famous gates.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tortenelem","tag-jeruzsalem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kozelkeletblog.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kozelkeletblog.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kozelkeletblog.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kozelkeletblog.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kozelkeletblog.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kozelkeletblog.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140,"href":"https:\/\/kozelkeletblog.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kozelkeletblog.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kozelkeletblog.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kozelkeletblog.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kozelkeletblog.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}