It's Not Just a Wall, It's a Document
- Nir Topper
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
When traveling through the Land of Israel, it is hard to miss a recurring motif in our landscape: walls. But the truth is that walls and fortification systems are much more than mere piles of stones designed to stop an enemy; they are a fascinating historical "document" that reveals the engineering capability, economic power, and existential fears of each era.
The geographical location of the Land of Israel, as a narrow land bridge between empires, forced everyone living here to be ready with the sword – and in very many cases – behind a wall. This journey begins 10,000 years ago in Jericho, with what some researchers have estimated to be the oldest fortified tower in the world (though today there are those who dispute this entirely), and continues to an amazing discovery at Tel Dan: the Canaanite brick gate ("Abraham's Gate"). This gate, which survived thanks to earthen ramparts that buried it, proves that the True Arch was invented here in the Land of Israel thousands of years before the Romans even thought of it.
In the Biblical period, the security dilemma was between economy and power. The kings of Judah and Israel built "Casemate walls" – double walls with rooms in the middle, which were used for living quarters or storage in times of peace, and were filled with earth during times of war. But when the threat became existential, the rules changed. King Hezekiah, anticipating the terrifying Assyrian war machine and their battering rams, built the "Broad Wall" in Jerusalem. He spared nothing: the wall was built to an insane thickness of 7 meters (!), and included the destruction of private houses that stood in its path to fortify the city, exactly as the Prophet Isaiah described: "And ye have broken down the houses to fortify the wall." (Isaiah 22:10).
Beyond thickness and height, engineering sophistication in the Land of Israel was expressed in a variety of creative solutions that evolved over generations. Alongside the economical "Casemate wall," ancient engineers developed the "Glacis" – a sloped rampart of earth and stones that protected the wall's foundations, prevented battering rams from getting close, and left attackers exposed to the defenders' fire from above.
However, the greatest challenge was always the gate – the city's weak point. The solution was transforming the gate into an independent fortress: sophisticated entry systems with watchtowers and internal division into chambers. We find six-chamber gates (characterizing the construction projects at Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer) and later four-chamber gates. These chambers not only strengthened the defensive structure but also served in daily life as the center of the public sphere – the place where the "Elders of the City" sat, judged the people, and closed deals.
History teaches that sometimes destroying walls is actually the best strategy. In the 13th century, the Ayyubid rulers of Jerusalem (Saladin's successors) adopted a "scorched earth" policy and destroyed the fortifications they had built with their own hands, out of fear that the Crusaders would return, conquer the city, and fortify themselves within it again. Thus, Jerusalem remained open and unwalled for centuries, until Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent built the walls we know today – walls that, beyond protecting the city's residents, were intended to impress and display the regime's capabilities.
One of the most common confusions concerns the Western Wall. King Herod, the great builder of the ancient world, initiated the project of expanding the Temple Mount over 2,000 years ago, but it is important to understand: The Wall is not a defensive city wall, but a Retaining Wall. Its role was to hold the immense mass of earth used to level the great plaza, not to stop armies. It is an engineering marvel of huge stones in dry construction, which over the years turned from an architectural element into a place sacred to the Jewish people (being the closest place to the Holy of Holies that one can, and according to Halakha is permitted to, physically reach), after its remnants survived the Roman destruction.
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A wall is never just a wall; it is a mirror of the military technology of the time. When the weapon was the bow and arrow – they built towers; when battering rams arrived – they shifted to earthen ramparts and very thick walls; and when the threat took to the skies – technological walls like "Iron Dome," "Arrow," etc., were built. One of the meanings, from Lachish and Ayyubid Jerusalem to our days, is that a passive wall is a double-edged sword. Without a determined defensive force, smart strategy, and intelligence, even the thickest wall is a challenge for attackers who will look for a way to crack it.
Image 1: Khirbet Qeiyafa (2011) – The southern city gate and the Casemate wall. Source: Israel Antiquities Authority. https://hadashot.iaa.org.il/report_detail.aspx?id=1989
Image 2: A section of the remains of Hezekiah’s Broad Wall (circa 701 BCE), Jerusalem. Source: Wikipedia, The Broad Wall.
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