Reason for the name
It named because it surrounds the Old Town of Jerusalem.
Builder
Built by Sultan Suleiman Al-Qanuni.
Surrounds the Old Town from all sides.
The wall of the city of Jerusalem extends over the old city, which covers an area of one square kilometer, the height of the wall varies from one location to another according to the natural terrain of the earth and the average wall thickness (2 meters).
The limestone used in the construction of the current wall, of large stones used smaller stones in the construction of the upper parts of the building, in addition to the towers that constitute defensive points, and there are rectangular operators dimensions “longitudinal” at the top of the fence, used to fire from guns and firearms.
There are a projections in some parts of the fence appear wide from the inside to provide freedom of movement for the archers, while looking narrow from the outside to provide adequate protection for the defenders of the fence, “as the perimeter of the fence tow mile and half a mile, wrap around Jerusalem from the four sides and lengths as follows:
Northern: 3930 feet.
East: 2754 feet.
South: 3245 feet.
Western: 2086 feet.
The height of the fence is uneven in some areas to (30 m) and the length to (4200) meters.
There are eleven doors in the Old Jerusalem Wall, seven of which are open
Bab al-Khalil / Bab Jaffa, located in the western wall.
Bab al-Jadid / Bab al-Sultan Abdul Hamid II located on the northern side of the wall about one kilometer to the west of Bab al-Amoud.
Bab al-Amoud / Damascus Gate / which located in the middle of the northern wall of the wall of Jerusalem.
Bab Al-Sahira in the northern wall of the wall of Jerusalem and half a kilometer east of the door of the column.
Bab Maghareba, which located in the western corner of the southern wall of Jerusalem, the smallest of the gates of Jerusalem.
The door of the prophet David (Bab Sohion, which located in the southern wall of the wall of Jerusalem).
The Black Gate (Alasbat) located in the eastern wall of the wall of Jerusalem.
As for the four closed doors, all of them located on the southern and eastern sides of the mosque, which also located within the walls of the mosque, which is at the same time part of the wall of Jerusalem, namely:
Bab Rahma and Bab Tawba, also called the Golden Gate, which located at a distance of (200) meters south of the Black Gate (Alasbat), and there prepared by a child in addition to a small door called funeral door.
Named after its use in the removal of funerals after the prayer and buried in the neighboring cemetery is the cemetery of Bab al-Rahma.
The single section is located in the southern wall of the fence near the southeast corner.
Al-Thulathi Gate is located in the southern wall, which follows the single door directly and includes three slots each topped by a contract.
The double door in the southern wall of the wall consists of two entrances, each of which surmounted by a wall, these three “single and triple double” doors rebuilt in the Umayyad period when the Khalipha Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan built the Dome of the Rock between 66 AH / 685 AD – 72 AH / 691 AD.
It should note that some of the old doors of Jerusalem are the same doors in the wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The wall demolished and rebuilt over the ages, and the first fortified wall was the city of Jerusalem
In the early Bronze Age, this system evolved during the ages to include a double wall and a tunnel stretching from inside the city to the spring between the two walls, in order to protect the eye of the only water found in Jerusalem, “Ein Silwan / Ein Gehon”.
In addition to the towers fortification of the spring which set up two pools to collect water, and this tunnel is older than the tunnel known as the tunnel of Ein Silwan.
This fortification wall, towers and water spring were present during the history of the Torah scholars to enter David, peace be upon him for the city of Jerusalem, “according to the Biblical narrative” this lies the text in the Torah because it is practically impossible to implement the plan contained in the Torah.
During the early Iron Age, the city experienced temporary migration, but did not affect the city’s life to the city and remained fences.
The city fortified by the Assyrians in 701 BC, the city fortified in two ways by fortifying the city with a wall known as the Wide Wall, which included for the first time Sohoin Mount, New Tunnel “The Silwan / Ain Um al-Daraj tunnel”, which is 1,700 feet long.
The city destroyed by Nebukhad Nassar and destroyed its walls in 561 CE and its inhabitants. The city of Jerusalem remained without fortifications until the arrival of the new rulers of Jerusalem, who sent by the Persians in 583 BC, they were Jews.
During the Greek period in 332 BC, the city expanded and reached its border to the Tal Moriah north and east of Sohioun Mount in the west and Tal Al-Dohour south, and included the construction of the Hamra castel between the Tal Al-Dohour and Tal Moria.
The same border during the first Roman period in Herod’s reign, but in addition to the existing walls and Hakra castle, Herod built the castle of Antonia, the castle of Jerusalem, called the Castel of David, on the western plateau of Jerusalem near Sohioun Mount and several aqueducts and canals.
The subsequent period of Herod’s rule saw the expansion of the city of Jerusalem to its maximum extent and included most of Silwan and the Old City today, Salahaddin Street and Nablus Street.
In 70 AD Titus destroyed the city completely, and the Emperor Hadrian built it within the current scheme on which the city and put the approximate size today and redesigned the city, but the Byzantines and expanded the city again and entered Silwan inside the Old Town, which was the city at the Islamic conquest. Through the first Islamic covenants with the observation that the only castle that maintained its existence is the castle of Jerusalem “Castle of David”.
In 1099, after the escape of the Fatimid’s and breaking the wall of Jerusalem from the north-west, the Crusaders took over the city and massacred its inhabitants, and they re-fortification of the city and the restoration of the walls and the castle.
In 1187, Salahaddin liberated the city and entered it from Bab al-Amud, he ordered the demolition of the walls of the city of Jerusalem and ordered only the restoration of the castle and digging a trench around the castle, his nephew Al Muadam Issa, the demolition orders of the city for fear that the Crusaders would reoccupy, reconciliation with the King Ayyubids re-fortification of the city.
But King Nasser Al Ayyubi left the city without a wall during the Mameluk period, with a significant restoration and reconstruction of the Holy Castle.
With the beginning of the Ottoman era in addition to the restoration of the castle, Sultan Suleiman Al-Qanuni built the current wall of Jerusalem with its current dimensions, which took Sohiuon Mount and the village of Silwan outside the walls of Jerusalem, there are several reasons behind the motive of building the wall, and it is likely to be religious reasons in recognition of the importance of the city. During the Ottoman and Jordanian periods.