For the Hebrews of the Iron Age, concentrated in the interior, Jerusalem was their major center. Important Hebrew kings included David (ca. 1000—965 BC) and his son Solomon (ca. 965—931 BC). From David through the next 350 years, Jerusalem was the capital of the Hebrew kingdom of Judah.
The great Temple, home of the god Yahweh and the Ark of the Covenant, the divinely given laws, was built under Solomon on a hill (today called “Temple Mount” or, in Arabic, “Haram esh-Sharif’) just to the north of the earliest settlement ofJerusalem (Figure 10.10). According to tradition, construction took seven years, and depended heavily on Phoenician artisans and Phoenician materials, such as cedar and cypress (or juniper) wood. This First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC, but is thoroughly described in the Bible (I Kings 5—6). It was a small but lavish rectangular structure measuring 27m x 9m x 13.5m, with three main parts, an entrance hall, a main room, and an inner sanctuary. The interior was floored with cypress then covered with gold, the walls paneled with cedar. The sanctuary was lined with gold, as was the outside of the Temple. Two cherubim, part animal, part human guardians of the sacred, were suspended in the air to protect the Ark of the Covenant with their outstretched wings. Decorations elsewhere in the Temple included carved cherubim, palm trees, and rosettes, all covered with gold leaf. Access to the Temple would have been restricted to priests and their attendants. The people at large worshipped and presented their sacrificial offerings outside.
Figure 10.10 Multi-period plan, Old City, Jerusalem
The Assyrian threat to Jerusalem in the late eighth and early seventh centuries BC, when Judah lay on the direct route from Assyria to Egypt, occasioned new fortifications. A remarkable tunnel ca. 540m long still survives, Hezekiah’s Tunnel, cut to bring water into the city from the Gihon Spring just outside the city walls during the unsuccessful siege of Sennacherib in 701 BC.
Jerusalem prospered in the seventh century BC, eventually freeing itself from Assyrian domination. Hebrew independence ended in 586 BC when the Babylonians captured and destroyed
Jerusalem and carried off many of its inhabitants. A reprieve came in 539 BC, when Babylon itself fell to the Persian king, Cyrus the Great. The exiles returned home, and, with the permission of Cyrus, the Second Temple was begun. Jerusalem was established once again as the focus ofJewish culture. The Second Temple would be enlarged and refurbished by Herod the Great in the first century BC, but destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. The temple has never been rebuilt. The site is now occupied by important Muslim shrines, the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque. One key remnant of the Second Temple has survived, however — the Western Wall of the temple platform. The Wailing Wall, as it is popularly known, is a major site of Jewish veneration.
World History
