Image Details

Hershel Shanks

Hezekiah’s Tower? Archaeologist Eli Shukron leans on a length of wall he and Ronny Reich discovered in 1999 along the eastern slope of the City of David (shown on plan). Just beyond Shukron is an offset that may have been part of a tower. The wall and tower are thought to have been built by King Hezekiah in the eighth century B.C.E.; both stand lower on the eastern slope than does the previously known Middle Bronze Age wall, indicating that Hezekiah sought to bolster the city’s defenses in anticipation of an attack by Sennacherib of Assyria in 701 B.C.E.