Excavating Jerusalem's Hasmonean-era city wall

ANCIENT FORTIFICATION: Huge Section of Jerusalem's 'First' City Wall Found Beneath Prison. Hasmonean Jerusalem had a bristling stone city wall five meters thick to protect the people against the bitter enemy, but that apparently isn't who brought the wall down 2,000 years ago (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

The Roman-Jewish historian of dubious reputation, Yosef ben Matityahu or Josephus, who would be captured by the Romans in the battle over Yodfat, wrote in detail about the mighty Jerusalem wall and its gates, calling it "impregnable" with no less than 60 guard towers along its length.

Maybe it was impregnable. "It is clear that it was systematically destroyed and razed to the ground. This is predetermined destruction – not the result of the ravages of time, nor of enemy attack," says [excavation director Dr. Amit] Re'em. "This raises questions about who was responsible for the wall's destruction."

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