In spite of its name, the Old City of Jerusalem's current layout is different from that of ancient times. Most archeologists believe that theCity of David, anarchaeological site on a rocky spur south of the Temple Mount, was the original settlement core of Jerusalem during theBronze andIron Ages.[5][6][7][8][9] At times, the ancient city spread to the east and north, coveringMount Zion and the Temple Mount. The Old City as defined by the walls of Suleiman is thus shifted a bit northwards compared to earlier periods of the city's history, and smaller than it had been in its peak, during the lateSecond Temple period. The Old City's current layout has been documented in significant detail, notably inold maps of Jerusalem over the last 1,500 years.
This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(September 2024)
In 1967, the Old City contained 17,000 Muslims, 6,000 Christians (including Armenians) and no Jews.[11]
The population of the Old City resides mostly in the Muslim quarter. In 2007, the total population was 36,965; there were 27,500 Muslims (growing to over 30,000 by 2013); 5,681 non-Armenian Christians, 790 Armenians (who decreased in number to about 500 by 2013); and 3,089 Jews (with almost 3,000 plus some 1,500yeshiva students by 2013).[12][11][13] By 2020, Old City's population dropped to 31,120.[14]
During the1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Old City wascaptured by Jordan and all its Jewish residents were evicted. During theSix-Day War in 1967, which saw hand-to-hand fighting on theTemple Mount, Israeli forces captured the Old City along with the rest ofEast Jerusalem, subsequently annexing them as Israeli territory and reuniting them with the western part of the city. Today, the Israeli government controls the entire area, which it considers part of its national capital. However, theJerusalem Law of 1980, which effectively annexed East Jerusalem to Israel, was declared null and void byUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 478. East Jerusalem is now regarded by the international community as part ofoccupied Palestinian territory.[15][16]
The Broad Wall, part of the wall surrounding the city's western hill, built byHezekiah, king ofJudah, during the late-8th century BCE
According to theHebrew Bible, beforeKing David'sconquest of Jerusalem in the 11th century BCE the city was home to theJebusites. TheBible describes the city as heavily fortified with a strongcity wall, a fact confirmed by archaeology. The Bible names the city ruled by King David as theCity of David, inHebrew Ir David, which was identified southeast of the Old City walls, outside theDung Gate. In the Bible, David's son,King Solomon, extended the city walls to include the Temple and Temple Mount. After the partition of theUnited Kingdom of Israel, the southern tribes remained in Jerusalem, with the city becoming the capital of theKingdom of Judah.[17]
Jerusalem was largely extended westwards after theNeo-Assyrian destruction of the northernKingdom of Israel and the resulting influx of refugees. KingHezekiah had been preparing for an Assyrian invasion by fortifying the walls of the capital, building towers, and constructing a tunnel to bring fresh water to the city from a spring outside its walls.[18] He made at least two major preparations that would help Jerusalem to resist conquest: the construction of theSiloam Tunnel, and construction of theBroad Wall.
In about 440 BCE, the city was rebuilt on a smaller scale during the Persian period, when, according to the Bible,Nehemiah led the Jews who returned from the Babylonian Exile. An additional, so-called Second Wall, was built by KingHerod the Great, who alsoexpanded the Temple Mount and rebuilt the Temple. In 41–44 CE,Agrippa, king ofJudea, started building the so-called "Third Wall" around the northern suburbs. The entire city was totallydestroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.[23]
The northern part of the city was rebuilt by the EmperorHadrian around 130, under the name Aelia Capitolina. In theByzantine period Jerusalem was extended southwards and again enclosed by city walls.
Muslims occupied Byzantine Jerusalem in the 7th century (637 CE) under the second caliph, `Umar Ibn al-Khattab who annexed it to the IslamicArab Empire. He granted its inhabitants an assurance treaty. After the siege of Jerusalem,Sophronius welcomed `Umar, allegedly because, according to biblical prophecies known to theChurch in Jerusalem, "a poor, but just and powerful man" would rise to be a protector and ally to theChristians of Jerusalem. Sophronius believed that `Umar, a great warrior who led an austere life, was a fulfillment of this prophecy. In the account by thePatriarch of Alexandria,Eutychius, it is said that `Umar paid a visit to theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre and sat in its courtyard. When the time for prayer arrived, however, he left the church and prayed outside the compound, in order to avoid having future generations of Muslims use his prayer there as a pretext for converting the church into a mosque. Eutychius adds that `Umar also wrote a decree which he handed to the Patriarch, in which he prohibited Muslims gathering in prayer at the site.[24]
Remains of Late Roman-period gate underDamascus Gate
In 1099, Jerusalem was captured by theWestern Christian army of theFirst Crusade and it remained in their hands until recaptured by theArab Muslims, led bySaladin, on October 2, 1187. He summoned the Jews and permitted them to resettle in the city. In 1219, the walls of the city were razed bySultanAl-Mu'azzam ofDamascus; in 1229, by treaty withEgypt, Jerusalem came into the hands ofFrederick II of Germany. In 1239 he began to rebuild the walls, but they were demolished again byDa'ud, the emir ofKerak. In 1243, Jerusalem came again under the control of the Christians, and the walls were repaired. TheKhwarazmian Turks took the city in 1244 and Sultan Malik al-Muazzam razed the walls, rendering it again defenseless and dealing a heavy blow to the city's status.
The current walls of the Old City were built in 1535–42 by the Ottoman Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The walls stretch for approximately 4.5 km (2.8 miles), and rise to a height of between 5 and 15 metres (16.4–49 ft), with a thickness of 3 metres (10 feet) at the base of the wall.[3] Altogether, the Old City walls contain 35 towers, of which 15 are concentrated in the more exposed northern wall.[3] Suleiman's wall had six gates, to which a seventh, the New Gate, was added in 1887; several other, older gates, have been walled up over the centuries. The Golden Gate was at first rebuilt and left open by Suleiman's architects, only to be walled up a short while later. The New Gate was opened in the wall surrounding the Christian Quarter during the 19th century. Two secondary gates were reopened in recent times on the southeastern side of the city walls as a result of archaeological work.
UNESCO status
In 1980,Jordan proposed that the Old City be listed as aUNESCOWorld Heritage Site.[26] It was added to the List in 1981.[27] In 1982, Jordan requested that it be added to theList of World Heritage in Danger. TheUnited States government opposed the request, noting that the Jordanian government had no standing to make such a nomination and that the consent of the Israeli government would be required since it effectively controlled Jerusalem.[28] In 2011, UNESCO issued a statement reiterating its view thatEast Jerusalem is "part of the occupiedPalestinian territory, and that the status ofJerusalem must be resolved in permanent status negotiations."[29]
Archaeology
Israelite period
The Israelite Tower dating back to the Iron Age
Among the Israelite period finds in the Old City are two portions of the 8th and 7th century BCE city walls, in the area of theIsraelite Tower, probably including parts of a gate where numerous projectiles were found, attesting to the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.[30][31][32] Another part of the late 8th-century BCE fortification discovered was dubbed the"broad wall", after the way it was described in theBook of Nehemiah, built to defend Jerusalem against theAssyrian siege of Jerusalem of 701 BCE.[31][30][33]
In 2015, archaeologists uncovered the remnants of an impressive fort, built by Greeks in the center of old Jerusalem. It is believed that it is the remnants of theAcra fortress. The team also found coins that date from the time ofAntiochus IV to the time ofAntiochus VII. In addition, they found Greek arrowheads, slingshots, ballistic stones andamphorae.[34]
In 2018, archaeologists discovered a 4-centimeter-longfiligree gold earring with a ram's head around 200 meters south of theTemple Mount. TheIsrael Antiquities Authority said it was consistent with jewelry from the earlyHellenistic period (3rd or early 2nd century BCE). Adding that it was the first time somebody finds a golden earring from the Hellenistic times in Jerusalem.[35]
Herodian period
Many structures dated to the Herodian period were discovered in the Jewish Quarter during archaeological excavations carried out between 1967 and 1983. Among them was unearthed a palatial mansion from the Herodian period,[36] believed to be the residence ofAnnas theHigh Priest.[37] In its vicinity, a depiction of theTemple menorah was discovered, carved while its model still stood in the Temple, engraved in a plastered wall.[37] The palace has been destroyed during the final days of theRoman siege of 70 CE, suffering the same fate as the so-calledBurnt House, a building belonging to the Kathros priestly family, which was found nearby.[38][31]
Fresco showing signs of burning, dating to the time of the destruction of the Second Temple, Wohl Archaeological Museum
In 1968, theTrumpeting Place inscription was found at the southwest corner of Temple Mount, and is believed to mark the site where thepriests used to declare the advent ofShabbat and other Jewish holidays.[39]
Byzantine period
In the 1970s, while excavating the remains of theNea Church (the New Church of the Theotokos), aGreek inscription was found. It reads: "This work too was donated by our most pious EmperorFlavius Justinian, through the provision and care of Constantine, most saintly priest and abbot, in the 13th year of theindiction."[40][41] A second dedicatory inscription bearing the names of Emperor Justinian and of the same abbot of the Nea Church was discovered in 2017 among the ruins of a pilgrim hostel about a kilometre north of Damascus Gate, which proves the importance of the Nea complex at the time.[41][42]
Quarters
Map of the Old City's modern quarters
The Old City is currently divided into four uneven quarters: the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Armenian Quarter and the Jewish Quarter. Matthew Teller writes that this four-quarter convention may have originated in the1841 British Royal Engineers map of Jerusalem,[4] or at least ReverendGeorge Williams' subsequent labelling of it.[43] A fifth quarter, theMughrabi Quarter, was demolished following theSix-Day War.[44]
This 19th-century cartographic partition into four quarters represented the historical development of the city that had previously been divided into many moreharat (Arabic:حارَة,romanized: Hārat: "quarters", "neighborhoods", "districts" or "areas", seewikt:حارة);[45] the Christian and Jewish areas of the city had grown considerably over the preceding centuries.[46][47][48]
Despite the names, there was no governing principle of ethnic segregation: 30 percent of the houses in the Muslim quarter were rented out to Jews, and 70 percent of the Armenian quarter.[when?][49]
Below is a table of the historically recorded quarters of the city, from 1495 up until the modern system:[50]
TheMuslim Quarter (Arabic:حارَة المُسلِمين, Hārat al-Muslimīn) is the largest and most populous of the four quarters and is situated in the northeastern corner of the Old City, extending from the Lions' Gate in the east, along the northern wall of theTemple Mount in the south, to theWestern Wall –Damascus Gate route in the west. During the British Mandate, SirRonald Storrs embarked on a project to rehabilitate the Cotton Market, which was badly neglected under the Turks. He describes it as a public latrine with piles of debris up to five feet high. With the help of thePro-Jerusalem Society, vaults, roofing and walls were restored, and looms were brought in to provide employment.[51]
Like the other three quarters of the Old City, until theriots of 1929 the Muslim quarter had a mixed population of Muslims, Christians, and also Jews.[52] Today, there are "many Israeli settler homes" and "severalyeshivas", includingYeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim, in the Muslim Quarter.[12] Its population was 21,850 in 2020.[14]
TheChristian Quarter (Arabic:حارة النصارى, Ḩārat an-Naşāra) is situated in the northwestern corner of the Old City, extending from the New Gate in the north, along the western wall of the Old City as far as theJaffa Gate, along the Jaffa Gate –Western Wall route in the south, bordering the Jewish and Armenian Quarters, as far as theDamascus Gate in the east, where it borders theMuslim Quarter. The quarter contains theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre, viewed by many as Christianity's holiest place.[citation needed] Its population was 3,870 in 2020.[14]
TheArmenian Quarter (Armenian:Հայկական Թաղամաս, Haygagan T'aġamas,Arabic:حارة الأرمن, Ḩārat al-Arman) is the smallest of the four quarters of the Old City. Although theArmenians are Christian, the Armenian Quarter is distinct from theChristian Quarter. Despite the small size and population of this quarter, the Armenians and theirPatriarchate remain staunchly independent and form a vigorous presence in the Old City. After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the four quarters of the city came underJordanian control. According to a 2007 study, the quarter housed 2,424 people (6.55% of Old City's total).[53] Its population was 2,160 in 2020.[14]
TheJewish Quarter (Hebrew:הרובע היהודי,HaRova HaYehudi, known colloquially to residents asHaRova,Arabic:حارة اليهود,Ḩārat al-Yahūd) lies in the southeastern sector of the walled city, and stretches from the Zion Gate in the south, bordering theArmenian Quarter on the west, along theCardo to Chain Street in the north and extends east to theWestern Wall and theTemple Mount. The quarter has a rich history, with several long periods ofJewish presence covering much of the time[clarification needed] since the eighth century BCE.[54][55][56][57][58] In 1948, its population of about 2,000 Jews was besieged, and forced to leave en masse.[citation needed] The quarter was completely bombed during theBattle for Jerusalem.[11]
Hurva Synagogue
The Jewish quarter remained underJordanian control until its recapture byIsraeli paratroopers in theSix-Day War of 1967. A few days later, Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of the adjacentMoroccan Quarter, forcibly relocating all of its inhabitants, in order to facilitate public access to the Western Wall. 195 properties – synagogues, yeshivas, and apartments – were registered as Jewish and fell under the control of Jordan'sCustodian of Enemy Property.[59] Most were occupied by Palestinian refugees expelled by Israeli forces from West Jerusalem and its contiguous villages untilUNRWA and Jordan constructed theShuafat Refugee Camp, where many were shifted, leaving most of the properties empty of inhabitants.[59]
In 1968, after the Six Day War, Israel confiscated 12%, including the Jewish quarter and contiguous areas, of the Old City for public use. Some 80% of this confiscated infrastructure consisted of properties not owned by Jews.[59] After reconstruction the parts of the quarter destroyed prior to 1967, these properties were then offered for sale exclusively to the Israeli and Jewish public.[59] The prior owners mostly refused compensation, often because their properties were part of Islamic or familywaqfs, which cannot be put up for sale.[59] As of 2005[update], the population stood at 2,348.[60] Many large educational institutions have taken up residence. Before being rebuilt, the quarter was carefully excavated under the supervision ofHebrew University archaeologistNahman Avigad. The archaeological remains are on display in a series of museums and outdoor parks, which tourists can visit by descending two or three stories beneath the level of the current city.[citation needed]
There was previously a smallMughrabi Quarter in the Old City. Within a week of theSix-Day War's end, the quarter was largely destroyed in order to give visitors better access to the Western Wall by creating theWestern Wall Plaza. The parts of the quarter that were not destroyed are now part of the Jewish Quarter. Simultaneously with the demolition, a new regulation was set into place by which the only access point for non-Muslims to the Temple Mount is through theGate of the Moors, which is reached via the so-calledMughrabi Bridge.[61][62]
During different periods, the city walls followed different outlines and had a varying number of gates. During the era of thecrusaderKingdom of Jerusalem for instance, Jerusalem had four gates, one on each side. The current walls were built bySuleiman the Magnificent, who provided them with six gates; several older gates, which had been walled up before the arrival of the Ottomans, were left as they were. As to the previously sealed Golden Gate, Suleiman at first opened and rebuilt it, but then walled it up again as well. The number of operational gates was brought back to seven after the addition of the New Gate in 1887; a smaller one, popularly known as theTanners' Gate, has been opened for visitors after being discovered and unsealed during excavations in the 1990s. The sealed historic gates comprise four that are at least partially preserved (the double Golden Gate in the eastern wall, and the Single, Triple, and Double Gates in the southern wall), with several other gates discovered by archaeologists of which only traces remain (the Gate of the Essenes onMount Zion, the gate of Herod's royal palace south of thecitadel, and the vague remains of what 19th-century explorers identified as the Gate of the Funerals (Bab al-Jana'iz) or of al-Buraq (Bab al-Buraq) south of the Golden Gate[63]).
Until 1887, each gate was closed before sunset and opened at sunrise. These gates have been known bya variety of names used in different historical periods and by different communities.
^Kollek, Teddy (1977). "Afterword". In John Phillips (ed.).A Will to Survive – Israel: the Faces of the Terror 1948-the Faces of Hope Today. Dial Press/James Wade.about 225 acres
^abcEliyahu Wager (1988).Illustrated guide to Jerusalem. Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Publishing House. p. 138.
^abTeller, Matthew (2022).Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City.Profile Books. p. Chapter 1.ISBN978-1-78283-904-0. Retrieved2023-05-30.What wasn't corrected, though – and what, in retrospect, should have raised much more controversy than it did (it seems to have passed completely unremarked for the last 170-odd years) – was[Aldrich and Symonds's] map's labelling. Because here, newly arcing across the familiar quadrilateral of Jerusalem, are four double labels in bold capitals. At top leftHaret En-Nassara and, beneath it,Christian Quarter; at bottom leftHaret El-Arman andArmenian Quarter; at bottom centreHaret El-Yehud andJews' Quarter; and at top right – the big innovation, covering perhaps half the city –Haret El-Muslimin andMohammedan Quarter. had shown this before. Every map has shown it since. The idea, in 1841, of a Mohammedan (that is, Muslim) quarter of Jerusalem is bizarre. It's like a Catholic quarter of Rome. A Hindu quarter of Delhi. Nobody living there would conceive of the city in such a way. At that time, and for centuries before and decades after, Jerusalem was, if the term means anything at all, a Muslim city. Many people identified in other ways, but large numbers of Jerusalemites were Muslim and they lived all over the city. A Muslim quarter could only have been dreamt up by outsiders, searching for a handle on a place they barely understood, intent on asserting their own legitimacy among a hostile population, seeing what they wanted to see. Its only purpose could be to draw attention to what it excludes.
^Ariel, D. T., & De Groot, A. (1978). "The Iron Age extramural occupation at the City of David and additional observations on the Siloam Channel."Excavation at the City of David, 1985.
^Reich, R., & Shukron, E. (2000). "The Excavations at the Gihon Spring and Warren's Shaft System in the City of David."Ancient Jerusalem Revealed. Jerusalem, 327–339.
^Zissu, Boaz (2018). "Interbellum Judea 70-132 CE: An Archaeological Perspective".Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries: The Interbellum 70‒132 CE. Joshua Schwartz, Peter J. Tomson. Leiden, The Netherlands. p. 19.ISBN978-90-04-34986-5.OCLC988856967.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Annual Report, 1936, of the Department of Land and Surveys, page 368: "In 1936 a complete map of the Old City of Jerusalem was published on the scale 1/2,500. The only previous map of the Old City was that made in 1865 by Sir Charles Wilson, previously mentioned. This map is apparently often called by writers the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem! Anyhow, it proved itself worthy of the title, for Lieut-Col F. J. Salmon states that it was sufficiently accurate to be used as the framing of the new map. The old map showed no more than the streets and principal edifices; the new shows all the structures"
^"UNESCO replies to allegations". UNESCO. 15 July 2011.The Old City of Jerusalem is inscribed on the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger. UNESCO continues to work to ensure respect for the outstanding universal value of the cultural heritage of the Old City of Jerusalem. This position is reflected on UNESCO's official website (www.unesco.org). In line with relevant UN resolutions, East Jerusalem remains part of the occupied Palestinian territory, and the status of Jerusalem must be resolved in permanent status negotiations.
^Teller, Matthew (2022).Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City.Profile Books. p. Chapter 1.ISBN978-1-78283-904-0. Retrieved2023-05-30.But it may not have been Aldrich and Symonds. Below the frame of their map, printed in italic script, a single line notes that 'The Writing' had been added by 'theRevd. G. Williams' and 'the Revd. Robert Willis'… Some sources suggest [Williams] arrived before[Michael] Alexander, in 1841. If so, did he meet Aldrich and Symonds? We don't know. But Williams became their champion, defending them when the Haram inaccuracy came up and then publishing their work. The survey the two Royal Engineers did was not intended for commercial release (Aldrich had originally been sent toSyria under 'secret service'), and it was several years before their military plan of Jerusalem came to public attention, published first in 1845 by their senior officer Alderson in plain form, without most of the detail and labelling, and then in full in 1849, in the second edition of Williams's book The Holy City. Did Aldrich and/or Symonds invent the idea of four quarters in Jerusalem? It's possible, but they were military surveyors, not scholars. It seems more likely they spent their very short stay producing a usable street-plan for their superior officers, without necessarily getting wrapped up in details of names and places. The 1845 publication, shorn of street names, quarter labels and other detail, suggests that… Compounding his anachronisms, and perhaps with an urge to reproduce Roman urban design in this new context, Williams writes how two main streets, north-south and east-west, 'divide Jerusalem into four quarters.' Then the crucial line: 'The subdivisions of the streets and quarters are numerous, but unimportant.' Historians will, I hope, be able to delve more deeply into Williams's work, but for me, this is evidence enough. For almost two hundred years, virtually the entire world has accepted the ill-informed, dismissive judgementalism of a jejune Old Etonian missionary as representing enduring fact about the social make-up of Jerusalem. It's shameful… With Britain's increased standing in Palestine after 1840, and the growth of interest in biblical archaeology that was to become an obsession a few decades later, it was vital for the Protestant missionaries to establish boundaries in Jerusalem… Williams spread his ideas around.Ernst Gustav Schultz, who came to Jerusalem in 1842 as Prussian vice-consul, writes in his 1845 book Jerusalem:Eine Vorlesung ('A Lecture'): 'It is with sincere gratitude I must mention that, on my arrival in Jerusalem, Mr Williams ... willingly alerted me to the important information that he [and] another young Anglican clergyman, Mr Rolands, had discovered about the topography of [Jerusalem].' Later come the lines: 'Let us now divide the city into quarters,' and, after mentioning Jews and Christians, 'All the rest of the city is the Mohammedan Quarter.' Included wasa map, drawn byHeinrich Kiepert, that labelled the four quarters, mirroring Williams's treatment inThe Holy City.
^Arnon 1992, pp. 5–7: "The origin of this ethno-religious partition lies in the nineteenth-century modern survey maps of Jerusalem drawn by Europeans – travellers, army officers, architects – who explored the city. The following verbal geographical definitions of the quarters will refer to this contemporarily prevailing division of the Old City. The ethno-religious partition of the Old City on the nineteenth-century maps reflected a situation rooted in history. Crusader Jerusalem of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the capital of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, was partitioned among the residential territories of people from different European countries, Oriental Christian communities and knights orders. In 1244 Jerusalem returned to Moslem hands when it became part of the Ayyubid Sultanate of Egypt. The change of government coincided with a devastation of the city by the Central Asian tribe of Khawarizm which all but annihilated the city's population. In 1250 the Mamluks rose to power in Egypt. Under their rule Jerusalem became a magnet to pilgrims from all parts of the Islamic world. People from various regions, towns and tribes settled in it. The parts of the city preferred by the Moslems were those adjoining the north and west sides of the Temple Mount (the other two sides lay outside the city) on which stood their two revered mosques, the Dome of the Rock and al-Agsa Mosque. Christians from different denominations resettled in the north-west of the city, at the vicinity of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Armenians settled in its south-west, near their Cathedral of St James which had been destroyd by the Khawarizms. Jews settled in Jerusalem, beginning with the second half of the thirteenth century, near the south wall of the city, because the territory there was not settled by any other community and separated from their venerated place, the West (Wailing) Wall, only by a small quarter of North-African Moslems. When the city changed hands again at the beginning of the sixteenth century, falling to the Ottoman Turks, no change in the city's population, and hence in its quarters occurred."
^Arnon 1992, pp. 12: "The continuous Moslem area of the city occupied its entire east half penetrating its west half at the north, near Damascus Gate. Excluding its south part and the north-west bulge, this region will be defined in the nineteenth century as the 'Moslem Quarter'. In the west part of the city lay Haret en-Nasara in the middle of the area which will be named in modern times the 'Christian Quarter'. Two minorities dwelt in the south outskirts of the city: Jews in Haret el-Yahud, in the south-west part of the future Jewish Quarter and Armenians around their monastery in the south part of the modern Armenian Quarter. The layout of ethno-religious groups in sixteenth-century Jerusalem agreed then with the guidelines of their dispersal in the city in the thirteenth century described above."
^Arnon 1992, pp. 16: "The continuous flow of Jews to Jerusalem since the 1840s (see below) caused Haret el-Yahud to extend to all the previously sparsely populated area south of Bab es-Silsila Street (except Haret el-Magharba) and the east part of the Armenian Quarter. Jews settled also north of Bab es-Silsila Street at the south part of the Moslem Quarter (see below). In fact, neither the traditional term 'Haret el-Yahud' nor its modern counterpart 'Jewish Quarter' could cope with the expansion of the area inhabited by Jews in the south of the Old City in the late nineteenth century. Northwards lay the two medieval quarters of Qattanin and 'Agabet et-Takiya which being called after subsidiary streets have been pushed along the years into the internal parts of the area west of the Temple Mount by two quarters named after main streets in that region and in the whole city, Wad and Bab es-Silsila."
^Arnon 1992, pp. 17: "The uniformity of the area inhabited by Moslems in the north of the city brought about, in the long run, the swallowing of the medieval-group-named quarters by the neighboring quarters called after sites. The great increase in Jewish population in modern times at the south of the city produced, on the other hand, a process in an opposite direction – a population-named quarter – Haret el-Yahud – extended to a quarter called after a site – Haret esh-Sharaf, populated in the Middle Ages by both Jews and Moslems. But unlike populations and their quarters which disappeared altogether from the city's scenery, 'Sharaf', since it was a name of a site, survived as the name of the street round which the quarter had developed. Hart el-Yahud expanded also to medieval quarters named after ethnic groups like Risha and Saltin. Other indications in quarter names of population changes between medieval and modern times were all unreal. These were the cases of Bani Zayd replaced by Sadiyya, Zara'na by Haddadin and part of Nasara by Mawarna. To complement the variations of quarter changes there were also modern quarters called after sites which partially replaced medieval site-named quarters – see Wad and Bab es-Silsila quarters before."
^University of Cape Town, Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Congress, South African Judaica Society 81(1986) (referencing archaeological evidence of "Israelite settlement of the Western Hill from the 8th Century BCE onwards").
^Simon Goldhill, Jerusalem: City of Longing 4 (2008) (conquered by "early Israelites" after the "ninth century B.C.")
^William G. Dever & Seymour Gitin (eds.), Symbiosis, Symbolism, and the Power of the Past: Canaan, Ancient Israel, and Their Neighbors from the Late Bronze Age Through Roman Palaestina 534 (2003) ("in the 8th–7th centuries B.C.E. … Jerusalem was the capital of the Judean kingdom . … It encompassed the entire City of David, the Temple Mount, and the Western Hill, now the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.")
^Hillel Geva (ed.), 1 Jewish Quarter Excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem Conducted by Nahman Avigad, 1969–1982 81 (2000) ("The settlement in the Jewish Quarter began during the 8th century BCE. … the Broad Wall was apparently erected by King Hezekiah of Judah at the end of the 8th century BCE.")
^Koert van Bekkum, From Conquest to Coexistence: Ideology and Antiquarian Intent in the Historiography of Israel’s Settlement in Canaan 513 (2011) ("During the last decennia, a general consensus was reached concerning Jerusalem at the end of Iron IIB. The extensive excavations conducted … in the Jewish Quarter … revealed domestic constructions, industrial installations and large fortifications, all from the second half of the 8th century BCE.")
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