The City of David

The biblical City of David was situated on the southern slope of Mount Moriah, outside today's Old City wall. Under King Solomon the city was extended northward and included Mount Moriah. David chose Jerusalem as his capital primarily for geopolitical reasons. The bringing of the Ark of the Covenant to the city made it the Israelites' exclusive national, religious, and administrative center. Solomon had the lateral valley separating the city from Mount Moriah filled in. This "miloh" (infill) area, as it was known, became the site of many new palaces, while the Temple was built on the summit of Mount Moriah. The city's major point of vulnerability the fact that its water sources lay outside was removed on the eve of the Assyrian siege of 701 BCE by the digging of Hezekiah's Tunnel.

Jerusalem of the First Temple period reached the zenith of its development under King Hezekiah, expanding westward to the slopes of Mount Zion. In 586 BCE Jerusalem was captured and put to the torch by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar. The flames literally baked about 50 royal seals ("bullae"), which thus survived intact to our own time. It was in the small area of the City of David that the prophets uttered their resounding perorations during the period of the First Temple, articulating spiritual and ethical values which became the pillars of human civilization. Taking solace from the consolation offered by the prophet Jeremiah, who told them that they would return, the people of Jerusalem were led into a Babylonian exile which would last for 50 years.