Old City Walls Park

I wanted to show you some pictures of the walls of the Old City which are along the walkway I take to get up to the Jaffa Gate. Over the past couple months, they have been turning the outside of the walls into a park, adding landscaping and informational signs about the history. The current walls were built by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 1500s,but much of what you'll see is much older than that.  Here I am standing next to the western wall of the Old city, and you see David's tower on the left, which is at Jaffa Gate (one of the main entrances into the city). And there are some tombs on the right at the base of the wall.

These doorways are entrances to tombs that are REALLY old, dated to the first temple period, around 600-900 BC

You can enlarge to read more about these tombs and see what they are like inside.

I'm looking up at a huge tower, it is amazing to be standing right next to these magnificent and ancient walls.

This picture/sign shows the layers of time and civilizations that you can see in the walls. Enlarge this to see..

This is the view of the wall right behind the sign above, the view the drawing is portraying of the different layers of time.

Standing next to the wall, I am looking up the road that goes toward JUC, the walk I have taken hundreds of times.

Here we learn about a hidden gate that went directly into Herod's palace. Enlarge the pic to see where the red dot is.

So here is the place of the "red dot" on the diagram above. You can see the lower part of where the gate  into Herod's palace was imbedded into the reconstruced wall.

Now I am looking down the road toward the Jaffa Gate. The Old City is on the right, and the New City on the left.

The road back to JUC, paved with stones that are not very ancient:)

The view opposite from the city walls as I begin to walk back to JUC.

A final look at a tower from Crusader times. No matter how many tmes I see these walls, I think they are beautiful. They look so many different colors depending what time of day it is, and they seem to want to tell you stories and secrets of time past.  In the middle of the tower you can see an opening just large enough for an arrow or the muzzle of a gun.