God's City
Believers of three great faiths consider Jerusalem sacred. As the city celebrates its 3,000y years, archaeologists still probe its holy mysteries
"Of the 10 measures of beauty that came down to the world, Jerusalem took nine."--THE TALMUD
"No people blessed as thine, no city like Jerusalem."--CHRISTIAN HYMN
"One prayer in Jerusalem is worth 40,000 elsewhere."--ISLAMIC SAYING
It was a procession of joy, a pageant of history and faith gladful enough to have pleased the Shepherd King himself. Marching through the hills of Judea almost to within the shadow of the hand-carved stone walls of the ancient Holy City, 80,000 dancers, musicians and performers from Israel and around the world recently launched the 3,000th-anniversary celebrations of King David's establishment of Jerusalem.
Though central to the Jewish soul as Israel's "eternal capital," Jerusalem is vitally holy to all three of the world's great monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. And it is all the more celebrated during the Hanuka and Christmas seasons. The city is hailed as a gathering spot of civilizations, saints and prophets and is seen as a sacred place for pilgrims and their prayers. To believers, it is God's own city, a place infused with signs and symbols of the holy. And that in no small measure explains why its history is one of nearly ceaseless strife. Each event that takes place, each piece of ground that is disturbed, each artifact that is dug up can stir ancient hopes and resentments. With Israelis and Palestinians still inching toward peace, some critics deem Israel's yearlong celebration of the trimillennium a provocation as much as a statement of history.
Still, it is through the Holy City that "we can learn almost everything even remotely connected to the ancient Near East," argues archaeological writer Hershel Shanks in his stunning new book, Jerusalem. Across its hilltops have marched Canaanites, Israelites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Seleucids, Romans, Arabs, Seljuks, crusaders, Saracens, Mamelukes, Ottomans, Britons, Palestinians, Jordanians and Israelis. In its history, blood-drenched stones and archaeological treasures are keys to understanding the essence of the human spirit.
THE CITY OF DAVID "David took the stronghold of Zion, the same is the City of David."--II SAMUEL 5:7
Jerusalem's Chalcolithic roots predate David by almost 2,500 years. First mentioned in Egyptian hieroglyphics as the Canaanite Urushamem and Urusalim, it was visited by Abraham, says Genesis. But it was David who established its historic and holy standing.
The son of Jesse ruled Israelites from the southern city of Hebron when he first set his sights on the Jebusite fortress of Zion in about 1004 B.C. A political and military genius, the young king wanted a strategically located capital to unite fully the loosely linked tribes of Israel. And Jerusalem's natural citadel loomed over the Jordan Valley, standing about halfway between the northern and southern halves of the Holy Land.
Moving swiftly, recounts the second book of Samuel, David took Zion in a bloodless raid, renaming it Ir David, the City of David. A later account in 1 Chronicles implies that Joab, David's nephew and general, surprised the Jebusites by entering the town through a water shaft. The passageway Joab may have climbed in the Israelite assault can still be explored today. Almost 40 feet long, it connects by a subterranean tunnel to the gurgling Gihon Spring beneath the City of David, for centuries Jerusalem's only steady source of water. Discovered by Sir Charles Warren, a British surveyor who explored Jerusalem in 1867 and gave the shaft his name, it was cleared in 1979 with the help of South African mining engineers by archaeologist Yigal Shiloh.
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