Tower of David

The Tower of David (Migdál Davíd), also known as the Citadel (al-Qala'a), is an ancient citadel located near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. The citadel that stands today dates to the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. It was built on the site of a series of earlier ancient fortifications of the Hasmonean, Herodian, Byzantine and Early Muslim periods, after being destroyed repeatedly during the last decades of Crusader presence in the Holy Land by their Muslim enemies. It contains important archaeological finds dating back over 2,500 years including a quarry dated to the First Temple period, and is a popular venue for benefit events, craft shows, concerts, and sound-and-light performances. Dan Bahat, the Israeli archeologist, writes that the original three Hasmonean towers standing in this area of the city were altered by Herod, and that "The northeastern tower was replaced by a much larger, more massive tower, dubbed the "Tower of David" beginning in the 5th century C.E." The name "Tower of David" migrated in the 19th century from the Herodian tower in the northeast of the citadel, to the 17th-century minaret at the opposite side of the citadel, and after 1967 has been officially adopted for the entire citadel. The name "Tower of David" was first used for the Herodian tower in the 5th century CE by the Byzantine Christians, who believed the site to be the palace of King David. They borrowed the name "Tower of David" from the Song of Songs, attributed to Solomon, King David's son, who wrote: "Thy neck is like the Tower of David built with turrets, whereon there hang a thousand shields, all the armor of the mighty men" (). An Arabic name of the massive Herodian-Mamluk northeast tower is the Burj al-Qalʾa (). During the Early Muslim and Ayyubid periods it was known in Arabic as Miḥrāb Dāwūd, David's miḥrāb (prayer place). Please note that there is also another mihrab (prayer niche) called Miḥrāb Dāwūd, built into the inner side of the Southern Wall of the Haram esh-Sharif/Temple Mount.

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Related concepts (5)

Jaffa

Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo (יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa (يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, is an ancient Levantine port city founded by the Canaanites that is now part of southern Tel Aviv, Israel. Sitting atop a naturally elevated outcrop on the Mediterranean coastline, it was a strategic location that exchanged hands repeatedly in ancient Near East history, and was also contested during the Crusades, when it presided over the County of Jaffa and Ascalon.

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Christian Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these military expeditions are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were intended to conquer Jerusalem and its surrounding area from Muslim rule. Beginning with the First Crusade, which resulted in the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, dozens of military campaigns were organised, providing a focal point of European history for centuries.

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in the Mediterranean world.