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Archaeologists Uncover Longest Continuous Hasmonean City Wall Remains Beneath Jerusalem’s Kishle

Public display in the Tower of David’s new wing will follow, with scholars assessing whether a ceasefire or Herodian construction drove the wall’s removal.

The Jerusalem Regional Archaeologist for the Israel Antiquities Authority, Dr. Amit Re'im, walks in a section of an excavation site where, according to the institution, a city wall from the Hasmonean period, dating to the late 2nd century BCE, was uncovered under the Tower of David Citadel Museum, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
The Jerusalem Regional Archaeologist for the Israel Antiquities Authority, Dr. Amit Re'im, shows a section of an excavation site where, according to the institution, a city wall from the Hasmonean period, dating to the late 2nd century BCE, was uncovered under the Tower of David Citadel Museum, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Workers from the Israel Antiquities Authority clean a section of an excavation site where, according to the institution, a city wall from the Hasmonean period, dating to the late 2nd century BCE, was uncovered under the Tower of David Citadel Museum, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Workers from the Israel Antiquities Authority clean a section of an excavation site where, according to the institution, a city wall from the Hasmonean period, dating to the late 2nd century BCE, was uncovered under the Tower of David Citadel Museum, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Overview

  • The Israel Antiquities Authority has finished exposing a nearly 50‑meter‑long, roughly 5‑meter‑wide foundation section of Jerusalem’s Second Temple–period fortifications, the most complete segment found to date.
  • The wall segment lies under the Kishle wing by the Tower of David, a 19th‑century military building later used as a British prison, where excavations resumed two years ago after a long pause since 1999.
  • Archaeologists report the superstructure was deliberately dismantled to a uniform height, with leading explanations pointing to a Hyrcanus–Antiochus VII ceasefire requirement or later removal tied to King Herod’s nearby palace works.
  • Hebrew University’s Orit Peleg‑Barkat favors a Herodian explanation, noting that other sections of the Hasmonean wall elsewhere in Jerusalem were not similarly taken down.
  • Earlier digs at the wall’s base recovered Hellenistic catapult stones and hundreds of arrowheads linked to Antiochus VII’s siege, and precise dating now relies on pottery, coins and building style because the dry‑stone construction precludes radiocarbon tests.