Tower of David

The Tower of David (Hebrew: מגדל דוד, romanized: Migdál Davíd), also known as the Citadel (Arabic: القلعة, romanized: al-Qalʿa), is an ancient citadel and contemporary museum, located near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem.

The citadel that stands today dates to the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. It was built on the site of a series of earlier ancient fortifications of the Hasmonean, Herodian, Byzantine and Early Muslim periods, after being destroyed repeatedly during the last decades of Crusader presence in the Holy Land by their Muslim enemies. It is a venue for benefit events, craft shows, concerts, and sound-and-light performances.

Dan Bahat, an Israeli archaeologist, writes that the original three Hasmonean towers standing in this area of the city were altered by Herod, and that "the northeastern tower was replaced by a much larger, more massive tower, dubbed the 'Tower of David' beginning in the 5th century CE." Originally referring to the Herodian tower in the northeast of the citadel, in the 19th century the name Tower of David began to refer to the 17th-century minaret at the opposite side of the citadel, and since 1967 officially refers to the entire citadel.

Text adapted from “Tower of David” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Tower of David ranks #121 of 3,734 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #2 of the 13 mapped in Israel. Founded 149 BC, it is older than 99% of the atlas's dated landmarks. See how Israel compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗