Tower of David

The David Citadel is a fortress in the Old City of Jerusalem near the Jaffa Gate.

History

In the year 24 BC Herod the Great on the western hill of Jerusalem on the foundations of an older system build a fortress with three massive defense towers ( Hippicus, Phasael and Mariamne ), to secure the west side of town. The fort served as a bastion of the western gate of the town and the adjacent Herod's palace in the newly constructed Upper Town. When the Romans after the Jewish War - was destroyed in the course of which the Herodian Temple - dragged the city, they could stand as a reminder of Jerusalem's former size, these three towers. In Byzantine times, two of the towers were destroyed, the base of the third party can be seen to this day at the Jaffa Gate. As Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century built a historic city wall, a citadel came about. This was 1665, a minaret, that is the Tower of David today. Today is in the castle of David, the Jerusalem City Museum.

Despite the name, David Citadel has no relation to the Biblical King David. The naming is based on a mistake: In the Byzantine period was incorrectly inferred from the records of the Roman- Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus, the Old Testament Jerusalem have on the western hills - on the stands today the Citadel - located and the tower Phasael so in connection with King David brought. In fact, the City of David was south of the Temple Mount and Mount Ophel. The Muslims conquered Jerusalem, 637, took over this assignment and gave the name Phasael Mihrab of the Prophet David. Western travelers, who visited Jerusalem in the 19th century in search of biblical tracks, believed - again, mistakenly - seen in one of the Citadel added in the 17th century Minaret said David storm and so transferred the earlier mistake of Phasael on an Ottoman mosque.