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  • Elie Pothier

28/04 : The Tower of ... David ?

Dernière mise à jour : 1 mai 2021

R🇫🇷 and I decided to go and visit something in the Old City. We decided late to go to the Tower of David, situated at the entrance of the Old City next to Jaffa gate. We were supposed to meet at 10AM in Jaffa Street but someone didn’t wake up. I spent 50 minutes visiting the streets around Jaffa Street and ended taking an Ice Late, highly recommended by my friend and flatmate M🇺🇸, not far from R🇫🇷’s flat. When she woke up, she excused herself and said she was coming to meet me right away. So, … 20 minutes later …. we rejoined and went towards Jaffa gate to visit the Tower of David.


I must admit that I didn’t want to look ignorant about this monument so the evening before I went on its website and got acquainted with the history of this massive Citadel. What surprised me was the diversity of people who used and changed this monument in their respective periods. From the first wall of the city built under king Ezekiah 2700 years ago to the total renovation of the Citadel by the Israelis after 1948. Passing by the Hemonean period, King Herod’s rule, the Roman period, the Byzantine period, the Early moslem period, the French crusaders, the Mamelukes, the Ottomans and finally the British rule in the early 20th century. Each of them has ruled over the Citadel and has brought changes to it. Today’s Israelis praise whole of it even though Jews were responsible for a relatively small part of the Citadel’s history.


As you may also know, the Tower of David was actually not built by King David. In fact, he had nothing to do with it. It was Byzantine monks who came to Jerusalem around the 4th century CE (common era) and lived at the foot of the Phasael tower (the only one left out of the 3 towers built by King Herod). They mistakingly believed King David built the tower and ended up calling it the Tower of David. But the Phasael tower, still existing today, is no longer the tower of the Citadel called the Tower of David. The current TOD is actually a minaret built by the Ottomans in the early 17th century.

If you want more information about the Tower of David, I advise you to take a look at their official website where they give a summary out of every period of the Citadel. > https://www.tod.org.il/en/about



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