Image Details

“The Secret Passageway.” The medieval Muslim historian Mudjir ad-Din believed this area, to the west of Wilson’s Arch, provided King David with hidden access to the Temple from his palace, which he mistakenly located in the Citadel, adjacent to Jaffa Gate. In fact, the vaults on the north side of this passageway supported an aqueduct above Wilson’s Arch. The vaults and the aqueduct were built in the second century B.C.E., rebuilt by Herod, destroyed by the Romans during their suppression of the Great Jewish Revolt (66–70 C.E.) and finally rebuilt by the Arab Umayyads in the seventh-eighth centuries C.E.