Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer. The Jerusalem Wall That Shouldnt Be There, Jerusalem Down Under: Tunneling Along Herods Temple Mount Wall, Old, New Banquet Hall by the Temple Mount. Nehemiahs speech to the citizens of Jerusalem is masterful in its simplicity & directness. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. Submitted by Martin Hughes on Mon, 10/25/2021 - 01:00. Get insights SPL Payroll Outsourcing Pvt. And Jerusalem is a symbol of the city of God, God's dwelling place and the center of life for the world. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. After Jerusalem fell to the Umayyads in 638 C.E., the citys Byzantine walls saw major repairs, and large parts of the Tower of David and the walls around the Temple Mount were constructed. The whole Babylonian army, under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. Some people might think, our church is fine the way it is, why worry about ten years from now? The walls of Jerusalem had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. In some places it is impossible to continue because of the amount of debris on the slope. Nehemiah 1:13: Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. These walls were built by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the sixteenth century, roughly following the course of the walls built by the Romans to encircle Jerusalem in the second century. The small tower that Kenyon had uncovered appeared to be on the verge of collapse and was demolished and rebuilt by her team. People didn't just eat what the land nearby yielded; fish bones were found from sea bream and mullet from the Mediterranean Sea and catfish from the river Jordan or Lake Tiberias (Lernau 2015). Despite the detailed description of walls and gates, scholars debate the actual size of the settlement in Persian times and even question whether the walls were really reconstructed. You see, God is NOT against building walls! In the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capital, 2 one of my brothers, Hanani, came with certain men from Judah; and I asked them about the Jews that survived, those who had escaped the captivity, and about Jerusalem. The wall had been broken down, community had broken down and with everyone thinking about themselves, people worked on their own places but no one was working for the common good. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. It took the water from the Gihon Spring under the mountain to the Pool of Siloam below the city. Who first built the walls of Jerusalem? the area where today's Jewish and Armenian Quarter (Jerusalem) Quarters are located. . The Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem by the end of the 5th B.C. Arabic inscription inside Lions Gate. . E. Mazar, The Palace of King David. But when Sanballat the Horonite & Tobiah the Ammonite official, & Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked & ridiculed us, saying, What is this that you are doing? Temple Of Jerusalem - Description, History, Of major importance was the rebuilding of the Second Temple begun by Herod the Great, king (37 bce -4 ce) of Judaea. Whether Jerusalem was a birah, a Persian fortress, or a provincial capital possibly fortified by or with the permission of the Persian authorities to safeguard their interests cannot be determined on the basis of current evidence. Upon hearing that the wall of Jerusalem was down and destroyed, along with the gates being burned down, Nehemiah cried. Under the rule of the Hasmonean dynasty, the citys walls expanded once again, to form what the Jewish historian Josephus called the First Wall. Spoiler alert: there are as many opinions as there are scholars, and the archaeological evidence is meagre. These are the same walls that surround Jerusalem today. If our plans are not based on reality or the facts its highly unlikely our plans will be successful. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer. In 1981, the Jerusalem walls were added, along with the Old City of Jerusalem, to the UNESCO World Heritage Site List. Villages still supplied grain and other products, governors were appointed, residing first in Mizpa and later in Jerusalem, and for many people life will have taken its traditional course. 3 And they said to me, "The remnant . The answer was given during the July 20th the television program 60 Minutes which included a fascinating segment on the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. According to Jewish tradition, as expressed in the Tanakh, Jerusalem remained a Jebusite city until the rise of David, who conquered Jebus, renamed it City of David and started expanding it. No other biblical text is as explicit about the walls of Jerusalem as Nehemiah 3. E-Book Overview. Herod the Great added what Josephus called the Second Wall somewhere in the area between today's Jaffa Gate and Temple Mount. Not only nine gates are mentioned, but also other characteristic parts of the town such as the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hanael, the Broad Wall, the Pool of Siloam, the Kings Garden, the steps going down from the City of David, the tombs of David, the artificial pool, the House of the Heroes and many more. He took the expansion of the Hasmonean Temple Mount and extended it on three sides, to the north, west, and south. Nehemiah's brother came from Judah with bad news: 'The people who returned to Jerusalem are not safe. Ancient foundations of the walls of Jerusalem. `The Borders and de Facto Size of Jerusalem in the Persian Period, in O. Lipschits and M. Oeming (eds. In the Old Testament, Nehemiah and the Israelites were asked to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem! The Walls of Jerusalem (Hebrew: , Arabic: ) surround the Old City of Jerusalem (approx. Such tombs belonged to wealthy families, who buried their dead there for centuries. He was born in exile and grew to become the Cupbearer of King Artaxerses of the Medo-Persian empire. The Walls that Nehemiah Built: The Town of Jerusalem in the Persian Period, Many biblical scholars have been allured by these texts to sketch a map of the city based on the descriptions therein - see for instance, https://medium.com/@chrisvonada/the-courage-and-calling-of-nehemiah-1b64df490373. Several tombs have been found here with finds from the Iron Age unto the Hellenistic period. This opposition doesn't stop the children of Israel, as they work with weapons in hand. [8] The tower is known in Arabic as Qasr al-Jalud (Goliath's Tower), and to the Crusaders as Turris Tancredi (Latin for Tancred's Tower), after Tancred of Hauteville, the commander whose troops breached the Fatimid defenses at this specific point during the 1099 siege. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. At the top of the slope there was a large tower and a stretch of city wall from the Late Hellenistic period, built by the Maccabees in the 2nd century BC. Like Churchill, Nehemiah begins by stating how bad the problem truly is, looking not only at the wall but at their vulnerability without it. Nehemiah 3 is even more specific. Diana Edelman, who made an in-depth study of Jerusalem in Persian times based on biblical texts, archaeological finds and information on the Persian empire, sees Jerusalem as a birah, a small fortress used by the Persians (Edelman 2005). The book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament of the Bible is more than an account of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. . The walls are demolished, the gates reduced to ashes. 2 Chronicles 32:5: He set to work resolutely and built up all the wall that was broken down and raised towers upon it, and outside it he built another wall, and he strengthened the Millo in the city of David. But that did not make Jerusalem a large or prosperous town. He set to work resolutely and built up all the wall that was broken down and raised towers upon it, and outside it he built another wall, and he strengthened the Millo in the city of David. He said, The risk of doing nothing is the greatest risk of all. Thats why were doing what were doing because the risk of doing nothing is the greatest risk of all. This would indicate that rich families still lived in or around Jerusalem in the Persian period. 8 And David said on that day, Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack the lame and the blind, who are hated by David's soul. Therefore, it is said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. 9 And David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David. Then I turned back & entered by the Valley Gate, & so returned. Jerusalem would remain in ruins for some six decades and without protective walls for over two centuries. INTRODUCTION: Nehemiah means "The Lord Comforts". Later - in Persian times - the temple would have been provisionally restored and Jerusalem would have been a non-walled, largely empty settlement where some priests lived who maintained the temple services. Was it a walled town with a central temple, the seat of the governor, a centre of administration, religion and economy? Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man! At the time, I was cupbearer to the king.. [1] [2] The walls are visible on most old maps of Jerusalem over the last 1,500 years. Israel Finkelstein (2008), for example, sees Jerusalem of Persian and Early Hellenistic times as a small village without walls, with at most a few hundred inhabitants. One of Sultan Suleimans greatest projects was the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem. News and Interpretations on the Bible and Ancient Near East History. [6] Some remains of this wall are located today near the Mandelbaum Gate gas station. The Byzantine walls mostly followed the lines and foundations of the earlier walls from the Second Temple period. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.". 516 BCE - Cyrus Permits Jews in Babylonian Exile to Return to Jerusalem; 63 BCE - Roman General Pompey captures Jerusalem, 70 CE - Roman Forces Destroy Jerusalem and Demolish, 135 CE - Jerusalem Rebuilt as a Roman City, 1229-1244 CE - Crusaders Briefly Recapture Jerusalem Two Times, 1917 - British Capture Jerusalem in World War I. Tisha B'Av: The 9th of Av is observed as a fast day known as Tisha B'Av, which commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. Another problem: if this list includes only the walls around the southeastern hill and the Temple Mount, then nine city gates seem to be an extravaganza for such a small area. Fortifying the town would certainly not have been tolerated by the Persian authorities, and the story as told in the biblical book of Nehemiah would be a much later construction. The claim of Nehemiah is, I think, that he gave the city the symbolic appearance of an independent state - underlyingly, that there had been a deal whose terms were: no restoration of the former royal house but governors of the province to be Jewish. The first one to announce that she had found part of the Persian city wall was the English archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon. ), M. L. Steiner, `One Hundred and Fifty Years of Excavating Jerusalem, in B. Wagemakers (ed. The book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament of the Bible is more than an account of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. Another point is the size and function of Jerusalem during the Persian period. God has provided what is needed to get the job done. Nehemiah begins with a moonlit tour of the walls to assess the damage & the scope of the work to be done. Judah and her capital were mostly in ruins, its population decimated, the economy destroyed. Other than the Tower of David, the city of Jerusalem would remain an open city until its conquest by the Ottoman empire in 1517. (Perhaps it is noteworthy that TAD A.7 makes no mention of where in Yehud Bagavahya was but mentions priests in Jerusalem). (Photo Chamberi / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)). Only since the end of the 19th century do we know that the town from the Bronze and Iron Ages, roughly the period from 3200 - 600 BC, was built near the only natural spring in the area, the Gichon spring at the foot of the eastern slope of the southeastern hill (Steiner 2014). (Courtesy Ancient Jerusalem Project). Ironically, rather than raising peoples feelings of fear & anxiety; facing the brutal facts can have a remarkable impact on peoples confidence & motivation. God instructed Nehemiah to build a wall around Jerusalem to protect its citizens from enemy attack. Archaeological and radiocarbon dating suggests to some that this was carried out as early as the 18th century B.C.E. At the beginning, he also told no one the vision God had given him for building Jerusalems walls. Did archaeologists actually find the Persian city walls? It went as far as the royal cemetery, . Perhaps it rather encompasses all the destroyed city gates of Jerusalem, including those around the western hill. The pottery shows that several potteries provided the inhabitants not only with coarse utilitarian earthenware but also with vessels in Greek style and refined bowls. The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah (ha-kee-luh). In the 19th century, many building updates were made to the Old City, including the construction of New Gate and the filling in of the moat that surrounds the Tower of David. Ready to walk around Jerusalems incredible walls yourself? M. L. Steiner, `One Hundred and Fifty Years of Excavating Jerusalem, in B. Wagemakers (ed. Although the Temple had been rebuilt, the unwalled city of Jerusalem was not safe because of the hostility of Israel's neighbors. In 586 BC the Babylonians left behind a town largely destroyed. Then I said to them, You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Although the Persian town walls have not been found, there are indications that they may be hidden under the later Maccabean fortifications. The emphasis is on the exiles and on the return to the old land after the Persians had conquered Babylon in 539 BC and included Judah into their empire. But when Nehemiah arrives to Jerusalem, he faces opposition from the people who had already been living in Jerusalem because Nehemiah had made clear that all those living outside Jerusalem had no part in the new city. Moriah upon the threshing floor of Araunah. Info@splgroup.co.in Info@splgroup.co.in ALSO, I LIKE THE WRITE-UPS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE HOLY LAND. So I went up by way of the valley by night & inspected the wall. Well, you might be thinking . If Persian pottery was found underneath the tower, this means that the tower itself was built later. That could be two years later, a hundred years later or a thousand years later. The walls contain 34 watchtowers and seven main gates . You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.' When [Nehemiah] heard these things, [he] sat down and wept" (Nehemiah 1:3). In 701 BC, the Assyrians, headed by Sennacherib invaded Judah, the Southern Kingdom of Israel, because of their disobedience to God. The walls of Jerusalem were once again destroyed during the Crusader conquest of the city in 1099. During the Second Temple period, especially during the Hasmonean period, the city walls were expanded and renovated, constituting what Josephus calls the First Wall. In 1202 to 1212 Saladin's nephew, Al-Malik al-Mu'azzam 'Isa, ordered the reconstruction of the city walls, but later on, in 1219, he reconsidered the situation after most of the watchtowers had been built and had the walls torn down, mainly because he feared that the Crusaders would benefit of the fortifications if they managed to reconquer the city. O. Lipschits, Y. Gadot et al., `Palace and Village, Paradise and Oblivion: Unraveling the Riddles of Ramat Rael, Near Eastern Archaeology 74 (2011), 1-49. He was able to rebuild . Every important building he burned down. The walls of Jerusalem. The Jews gained their independence from the Seleucid Empire in 164 BC, led by the Maccabees and Hasmoneans. And David built the city all around from the Millo inward. This town was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC, and many of its inhabitants were sent into exile. We heard in Nehemiah 1 how Nehemiah inquired about the situation in Jerusalem (verses 2-3), empathized with those who were hurting (verse 4), humbled himself before God (verse 4) & prayed (verses 5-11) expressing adoration to God (v. 5), confessing his nations sin to the Lord (verses 6-7)), & petitioning God for help (verses 8-11). If the original wall would have been built in the Late Hellenistic period, one would expect pottery from the Babylonian, Early and Late Persian and Early Hellenistic periods in that rubble. That provided an opportunity to look underneath and behind the tower. When the Babylonians conquered and destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC, they also destroyed the walls and burned the gates with fire. In this map the walls surround the southeastern hill and the Temple Mount only; it is assumed that other parts of the Late Iron Age city were not reconstructed. The excavations of Kathleen Kenyon. But hes motivated by Gods vision for Jerusalem & his love for his people. Then they said, Let us start building! So they committed themselves to the common good. This expansion also included some additional wall construction on the north side of the city walls. [1][2] The walls are visible on most old maps of Jerusalem over the last 1,500 years. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 15201566), the city of Jerusalem regained its splendor and recovered from centuries of neglect. Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the Persian emperor Artaxerxes I, the most powerful ruler of that time. These ambiguities renders the reconstructions uncertain, and with it our view of Jerusalem in the Persian period. What this means is the careers of Ezra the scribe and Nehemiah the governor clearly ov. However, it is not clear if this wall was in use for that whole period, as the archaeological evidence for Late Bronze Age and early Iron Age Jerusalem remains murky and hotly debated. What a wealth of information on the lay-out of Jerusalem in Persian times! Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer. Rebuilding The Walls Of Jerusalem Nehemiah 4:16-18 KJV Nehemiah Chapter 4 16 And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. He leaves the settlement through the Valley Gate and then rides on his donkey in the direction of the Jackal Well and Dung Gate. Nehemiah believed in the power of prayer & perseverance in solving problems. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer. Agrippa I began the construction of an additional wall of the city which was completed just at the beginning of the First JewishRoman War in 66 AD. An inscription in Arabic from the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent states: Has decreed the construction of the wall he who has protected the home of Islam with his might and main and wiped out the tyranny of idols with his power and strength, he whom alone God has enabled to enslave the necks of kings in countries (far and wide) and deservedly acquire the throne of the Caliphate, the Sultan son of the Sultan son of the Sultan son of the Sultan, Suleyman. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). Your email address will not be published. He can see that rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem is a restoration job on several levels. Early September, after just 52 days, the wall was completed. Nehemiah 3:1 in all English translations. In the darkest days of World War Two when Great Britain stood alone against the Nazis, Winston Churchill came into leadership as Prime Minister at arguably the lowest & most difficult time in his nations history. Even if we accept it becoming a birta' at some point, a birta' is not necessarily the seat of a governor, only of a garrison commander. Do you know the difference between Noahs Ark & the Titanic? C. E. Carter, The Emergence of Yehud in the Persian Period A Social and Demographic Study (JSOT Supplement Series 294), Sheffield 1999. [7], At the northwest corner of the Ottoman wall, archaeologists have discovered the meager remains of a large tower, c. 35x35 metres, probably first built in the 11th century during the Fatimid period, that fell to the Franks at the end of the First Crusade in 1099, and was apparently expanded by the Ayyubids after Saladin's reconquest of the city in 1187. But did he do it? Hezekiah's new wall measured about 22 feet wide (7 m.) by 25 feet high (8 m.). During this time, observant Jews refrain from certain joyful activities and commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, as well as other historical tragedies. This, however, is a methodological error. Josephus, Ant. H. Lernau, `Fish Bones, in E. Mazar (ed. This paper investigates the facts `on the ground. How long did it take to rebuild the. Looking out over the walls of Jerusalem. Were praying and trusting God in the process and committing ourselves to the common good. New migrants were sent from the Persian Empire to Yehud to expand the agricultural production necessary for the army, and a governor was appointed with ancestral ties to the area (Nehemiah). A whole series of publications on Jerusalem in the Persian period has seen the light of day. Were literally rebuilding our oldest walls which were built over 150 years ago as well as the roof of the chapel and installing a new steeple. It was called Hezekiahs Broad Wall by archaeologists because of its width. Because Nehemiah sees what others cannot, he issues a call to action. who destroyed the walls of jerusalem When Titus conquered and destroyed Jerusalem, he was putting an end to many decades of rebellion that had erupted long before his time. Recent ones include Finkelstein 2008, Lipschits 2009, Ristau 2016, and Ussishkin 2006. Then he erected the temple upon it and added walls from the City of David to encompass the Temple Mount and temple. These new settlers would consist of descendants of the original exiles, but also of non-Judeans, such as retired Persian soldiers. In 19 BC, the master-builder, King Herod the Great, began his life's most ambitious building project. O. Lipschits, `Persian Period Finds from Jerusalem: Facts and Interpretations. The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 9 (2009), 2-30. Plan of Jerusalem in the Iron Age. Upon regaining the city from the Crusaders, Saladin began refortifying the walls in 1192. Whether as individuals, families, a church, a nation, or globally difficulties must be faced fully & directly. ), The Fire Signals of Lachish; Studies in the Archaeology and History of Israel in the Late Bronze Age, Iron Age and Persian Period in Honor of David Ussishkin, Winona Lake, Ind. Nehemiah receives His Commission 1. The entire city was destroyed in 587/86 BCE during the siege led by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. There is the technical side & the human side. Although eight gates can be seen along the walls, only seven are in use today. In the second element of his speech, Nehemiah acknowledges the seriousness of the situation. between its two ends. In preparation for the expected Crusader siege of 1099, the walls were strengthened yet again but to little avail. The biblical books Nehemiah 2 and 3 relay the story of Nehemiahs trip around the destroyed town of Jerusalem and of the rebuilding of its fortifications. As cupbearer it was his duty to taste wine from the kings cup before handing the cup personally to the king, a guarantee that the wine was not poisoned. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. Wright --University of Arizona, Center for Judaic Studies R. Reich, `The Ancient Burial Ground in the Mamilla Neighborhood, Jerusalem, in H. Geva (ed. If HolyLandSite.com is helpful to you, and you would like to support our work, we would be deeply grateful. PayPal does not require you to create a PayPal account to use your credit card. Nehemiah knows there will be opposition so he waits to share what God has put on his heart to do. Supported by: So it was about 22 years after returning to Jerusalem that they finally finished the temple. The oldest settlement of Jerusalem was not located in what is now called the Old City, but on the hill southeast of it. In 722 B.C., Assyria conquered the northern kingdom, then in 605 B.C. Despite evidence of permanent settlement dating back to at least the Early Bronze Age (c. 33002300 B.C.E. Dig into the illuminating world of the Bible with a BAS All-Access membership. When Nehemiah took this responsibility, by God's help and through his effective leadership, the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt only in 52 days. Returning Exiles Rebuild the Walls444 BC - 442 BC. This suggests that the rubble was swept down before the Late Persian period began, and that a city wall may have been built there at that time. Hes not afraid to use words like trouble, ruins, disgrace. No good comes from minimizing the difficulties of a task or situation that lies before us whether it is physical, relational, spiritual, financial, emotional, political or something else. M. L. Steiner, `The Palace of David Reconsidered in the Light of Earlier Excavations, op http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/palace_2468.shtml (2009). 1km2). Though the temple has been rebuilt, the city walls were as they had been for the last 130 years, with the result that the inhabitants of Jerusalem had no way of defending themselves against their enemies (see Nehemiah 4:11). Independent Archaeologist Nehemiah says that after his westward journey from Susa, he spent three days personally reviewing the walls so that he has firsthand knowledge & intelligence of the situation. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.". The stories as recorded in Nehemiah 3 can therefore not be correct and must date from a later period. He places this project in the context of strengthening the interests of the Persian empire vis a vis the growing threat from Greece and Egypt. He was available to God & answered the call to lead in a crisis & he did it effectively. Click here to take a video tour atop Jerusalems ancient walls. [8][9] The tower as well as the entire city wall were long destroyed by the time the Ottoman Turks built theirs, possibly since 1219 when Ayyubid ruler Al-Mu'azzam Isa razed most of the city fortifications.[9]. What good is it if you rebuild your own home but there are no city walls and no gate to prevent enemies from coming right in? Seal impressions bearing the name Yehud - the Persian province of Judah - show that the site was part of an economic network. Chapter 2<br> <br>Translation: Institute for Bible Translation named after M.P. I have been to Jerusalem but did not walk the walls. The walls of Jerusalem have shifted many times throughout history and today large sections of the ancient city lie outside the current Ottoman-era fortifications. JUST WONDERING. 3 And they said to me, The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. Then they said, Let us start building! So they committed themselves to the common good.. Nehemiah's brother came from Judah with bad news: 'The people who returned to Jerusalem are not safe. At the top of that hill and on its eastern and western slopes the remains of biblical Jerusalem have been found. Fatigue (Pagkapagod) An analysis of the pottery from the Persian period found during excavations in Jerusalem shows that there were several potteries that supplied the inhabitants with vessels, including Greek-style vases and thin-walled bowls, both luxury materials (Steiner 2011). In the month of Chislev (kiz-lev), in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capital, 2one of my brothers, Hanani (hah-nay-nee), came with certain men from Judah; and I asked them about the Jews that survived, those who had escaped the captivity, and about Jerusalem. Many people thought this was impossible. Long before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, the Jebusites lived securely within the walls of Jerusalem. Even today, numerous sections of Hezekiahs wall remain visible. 16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. According to the Book of Nehemiah, the walls of Jerusalem lay in ruins until the fifth century B.C.E., when Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem as the provincial governor and completed the repairs of the walls that had begun under Ezra. The walls of the Canaanite city appear to have stood for around a thousand years, well into the time of the Israelite monarchy, with possible evidence of later repairs in the Iron Age. We will soon discover that Nehemiah has a position of authority in the empire, being the 'cupbearer . It was King Artaxerxes I who would have moved the capital of the province from Mitzpa to Jerusalem because the later site was more strategically located and had a better water supply. that Jerusalem was the seat of a Persian governor then we also know that it wasnt a complete desolation or the sort of place for which Donald Trump would have had a pungent name. An accurate analysis of the finds I made shows, however, that the tower and the wall date from the Late Hellenistic period and are part of the fortifications described above (for an extensive analysis see Steiner 2011).