Jerusalem (historical state)
Jerusalem, historically known as Hierosolyma and later Aelia Capitolina, is a city of significant religious and cultural importance, revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Its strategic location on a ridge between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea has historically made it a vital crossroads for trade and pilgrimage. Founded around 1000 BC, it was first captured by King David, who established it as the capital of the united Jewish monarchy, and later saw the construction of the First Temple by his son, Solomon. Over centuries, Jerusalem experienced numerous conquests and transformations, including the Babylonian capture in 597 BC and the subsequent Persian allowance for Jewish return and rebuilding of the Second Temple.
The city changed hands multiple times, notably falling to Pompey in 63 BC, becoming a prosperous capital under Herod the Great, and experiencing destruction by the Romans during the First Jewish Revolt in AD 70. The Roman Emperor Hadrian later refounded the city as Aelia Capitolina in the 2nd century, restricting Jewish access. With the rise of Christianity, Jerusalem gained renewed significance, highlighted by the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. However, the city's Christian era ended with the Arab conquest in 637, further shaping its complex cultural and religious landscape. Today, Jerusalem stands as a symbol of faith and resilience, reflecting its diverse historical narratives.
Jerusalem (historical state)
Hierosolyma, later Aelia Capitolina, the holy city of Jews, Christians and Moslems
It stands on the ridge that separates the Mediterranean from the Dead Sea, at a point where this west-east route crosses one of the two principal north-south routes of the country. The Old City, possessing access to the Gihon spring, is bounded by the Hinnom and Kedron valleys to the west and east respectively, between them runs a central valley, the Tyropoeon.
The earliest town, occupied by the Jebusites (of uncertain, non-Jewish, origin) was captured by King David (c 1000 BC), whose son Solomon extended the site and built the first Temple (c 960). After the subsequent division of the united Jewish monarchy into Northern and Southern kingdoms, Jerusalem, the capital of the southern state, was captured in 597 by Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon, who deported most of the population ten years later. About 530, the Persians, who had succeeded the Babylonians, allowed a group of exiles to return, and the (Second) Temple and walls were gradually rebuilt.
After Alexander the Great had allowed the city to retain its privileges, it passed into the hands first of the Ptolemies and then of the Seleucids (200). Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–163) built a new citadel (the Acra), and was prompted by his desire for imperial religious uniformity to attempt to Hellenize the Jews, rededicating their Temple of Olympian Zeus. Such unwise measures caused a major uprising, which led to the reconsecration of the Temple (164) and the establishment of an independent Jewish state under the Hasmonaean (Maccabean) dynasty. In 63, however, Pompey the Great captured Jerusalem, which, after a series of puppet regimes and upheavals, was stormed by Gaius Sosius (37) and became the capital of the prosperous client kingdom of Herod the Great, who rebuilt the Temple; though in the subsequent Roman province of Judaea (AD 6), Jerusalem relinquished the role of capital to Caesarea Maritima. The crucifixion of Jesus has been variously attributed to 30 and 33. In the suppression of the First Jewish Revolt (First Roman War), the city was besieged by the Romans and almost totally destroyed, and its Temple obliterated (AD 70); henceforward a legion was stationed there. Hadrian, on the occasion of a near-eastern visit, refounded Jerusalem (130), which, after the Second Revolt (132–35)—prompted largely by the emperor's prohibition of circumcision—no Jew was permitted to enter; the city became a Roman colony, Aelia Capitolina, either in 130 or c 135. The conversion to Christianity of Constantine I the Great (306–37) inaugurated a new period of prosperity, founded as before on the pilgrim traffic, which now, however, served the new official faith. Theological disputes gave Bishop Juvenal (421–58) a chance to advance his position vis-à-vis the sees of Antioch and Caesarea Maritima.
The small post-Exilic town of the sixth and fifth centuries BC had gradually increased in size until the age of Herod the Great, who became Jerusalem's most active builder of all time. His revived Temple doubled the area of the precinct. The Moslem Dome of the Rock now stands on the massive platform (the Haram al-Sharif) which Herod built for the purpose; some of the splendid masonry of its retaining supports (notably the Wailing Wall) can still be seen, and a new reconstruction of the whole complex has now been made possible. To the west Herod constructed a luxurious palace, of which a tower is still visible, and to the north was his fortress the Antonia, named after Antony who had preceded Augustus as his patron. According to Josephus, the king also erected a theater and amphitheater, probably outside the walls, which he strengthened. Further walls were erected when Agrippa I (41–44) extended the perimeter of the city.
Hadrian's Aelia Capitolina established the topography of the present Old City, of which the street plan is shown on a sixth-century mosaic from Madaba (Medaba in Jordan). According to this picture, Hadrian's column stood just outside the city. The main gate and guard tower have recently been excavated. The tower, which is now mainly underground, was eighteen feet wide and thirty-six feet high—the tallest Roman structure to have survived in Israel. The munificent endowments of Jerusalem under the Christian empire are represented by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the Hill of Golgotha, where parts of the Constantinian building can still be seen. The end of Christian Jerusalem came with the Arab conquest in 637.