Temple Mount Rampart to Be Replaced with Bridge
Work Could Uncover Many Key Finds
The fragile hill and rampart leading up to the Mugrabi Gate of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem will be demolished and replaced by a new bridge, Israel authorities announced. Though motivated by safety concerns, the excavation work is expected to be a bonzanza for archaeologists studying the history of Jerusalem.
Adjacent to the Western Wall, the hill was damaged by an earthquake in January 2004. A subsequent snowstorm caused a retaining wall beneath the hill to collapse and revealed the acute vulnerability of the hill—as well as much of the Temple Mount—to severe weather. Having already closed off a portion of the women’s section of the Western Wall plaza to protect worshipers, city officials fear a catastrophe. They are convinced that the only solution is to remove the hill and the rampart on top of it and replace both with a modern bridge to the Mugrabi Gate, which is currently the only entrance to the Temple Mount permitted to non-Muslims, as well as the Israeli police’s preferred access-point to the plaza above. According to the city’s chief engineer, Uri Sheetrit, a heavy rain could bring the rampart down.
The excavation and construction work will be a rare opportunity for Jerusalem archaeologists. “It’s not every day that we get to excavate so close to the Western Wall,” archaeologist Eilat Mazar told the Israeli media. Mazar anticipates finding more of the Roman road that ran along side the Western Wall and uncovering Barclay’s Gate, of which only the lintle is visible today from the women’s section of the Jewish prayer area of the Western Wall plaza. The gate “is very beautiful,” Mazar said, “and when it is uncovered it will be one of the most beautiful scenes in the Old City.” The hill itself contains the remains of buildings going back to the Mamluke period (1250–1516 A.D.) and sits atop remnants from the Second Temple (516 B.C.-70 A.D.) Mazar speculates that whatever excavators find in the hill and underneath it will be given proper attention, but the real treasure will be what is behind it. “I assume […] that the authorities will remove whatever now forms the hill, so that the full glory of the Wall and the Gate can be seen.”