Thursday, September 4, 2008

Ancient Wall Discovered in Jerusalem

Yesterday, Wednesday, September 3, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 2,100 year old wall from the ancient perimeter of Jerusalem. It was a 10 1/2 foot high wall located on Mount Zion which is in the south west corner of the ancient city. The ancient walls which encircled Jerusalem in Jesus' day were part of a 3 1/2 mile-long wall providing fortification.

A year ago in June Toni and I, along with Ryan and Jenn, spent three weeks in Israel attending a class on Mount Zion near the location of this recently uncovered wall. There is a different wall that surrounds the Old City of Jerusalem now that was built by Suleiman in 1538 AD. This current wall runs 2 1/2 miles around old Jerusalem. While we were in Israel Toni and I ran the 2 1/2 mile route around this 500 year old wall on several occasions. One day I ran it three times running up and down Mount Zion each time. The most difficult part of the run is from the southeast corner of the Old City up the east side along the east wall of temple mount to the north east corner of the city which is the Muslim quarter of the city.

Details of this discovery of the 2,100 year old wall can be seen at
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1220444319782&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull