The Citadel

On a much lighter note, I finally made it to the Citadel yesterday.

The Citadel is a complex of buildings near the Jaffa Gate, on the western side of the Old City. It began life as Herod the Great's palace complex, guarded over by three towers. These three towers, named Phasael, Hippicus, and Mariamne after his brother, friend, and second wife, respectively, still form the basis of the Citadel today.

Over the centuries, the Citadel has been reconstructed by successive occupiers of Jerusalem, including the Romans, Crusaders, and Ottomans. The extensive archaeological excavations within allow the visitor to see more than two thousand years of history in successive digging layers. These include Hasmonean (Maccabean) era walls, the base of the Phasael tower of Herod, Crusader battlements, Mamluk improvements, and, of course, the Ottoman-era walls. The Citadel as an actual fortress dates from the Crusade era, from whence it takes its name.

The rooms within the walls are today a museum. The exhibits, like the Bible Lands Museum I mentioned earlier, are presented chronologically. They take the visitor through Canaanite, First Temple, Second Temple, Roman and Byzantine, Early Islamic and Crusader, Ottoman, and modern Jerusalem, showing how the city has changed hands and peoples over time. I thought the presentation on Islamic and Ottoman Jerusalem, held inside a room that was once the Citadel's mosque, was particularly fair.

As a finale to the museum, a model of nineteenth century Jerusalem displayed at the 1873 Vienna World's Fair is available for viewing. For whatever reason the Haram al-Sharif (the temple mount) is not raised any higher than the rest of the city, giving the appearance that the two shrines atop are on ground level with the Western Wall Plaza. Otherwise, it's a superb model.

I also had a curious encounter on my way back to St. George's via the Damascus Gate. I'd never entertained the possibility of Muslim street evangelists, but I encountered a pleasant young man who, trying so hard to speak English, wanted to tell me about the unity and supremacy of Allah. He gave me a free booklet which talks about Islam, points out contradictions in the Old and New Testaments, and poses questions for Christians to answer about the Trinity (an easy target for our un-catechized, anti-intellectual culture). I took the book and chatted with him for a bit, although, sad to say, I didn't engage in any extended argument because it was beginning to rain. But if anyone wants to know:

Apparently, the truth is that Muslims walk in circles around the Kabba.