Jerusalem: Hasmonaean wall

This photograph shows the walls of the western side of the Old City of Jerusalem. The prominent portion of this wall was built by the Ottomans in the 16th century; however, significant parts of the wall, especially the lower layers, are from the days of the Jewish King Herod (1st century BCE). Several courses of a substantial stone wall built on bedrock and running beneath the walls of the Herodian and later periods dates to the days of the Hasmonaean kings (late 2nd-early 1st centuries BCE). This lower wall, in conjunction with information from other excavations, confirms that the city walls extended to their present western limits at least by the time of the Hasmonaean kings.