Semites settled in Palestine from Arabia and numerous flint weap ons have been found near Jeru salem. About 1400 B.c., before Joshua's invasion of the country, the city was a vassal of Egypt.
Among the Tell-el-Amama tab lets (q.v.) there are some seven which are from Urusalim, as the city was then called, which speak of coming attack and ask for Egyptian aid. The Egyptians seem to have maintained a garri son there but when the Israelites invaded the country the city was in the hands of the Jebusites. At the division, it fell in the portions of Judah and Benjamin, the tribal boundary passing through the city, which was not com pletely captured till seven years after David's accession. On the eastern hill, on the site of the Jebusite Zion, he placed the royal city, and, to the north of this, he chose a place for the Temple which his son Solomon was to build. Across the Tyropoeon valley, on the western hill, was the civil town. This is the view generally accepted, but there are still scholars who contest these identifications. In 187o the excavations of the late Sir A. Warren showed that the Tyropoeon valley passed under the south-west corner of the present Haram area. Probably the Holy of Holies stood over the rock in the so-called Mosque of Omar. Solomon fortified the city with a wall, the "old wall" of Josephus. After his death Jerusalem was plundered by Shishak of Egypt and suffered a further loss of prestige by Jeroboam's rebellion, which alienated ten tribes and left the house of David with only Judah, Benjamin and some of the Levites. In Amaziah's reign (c. 790 B.c.?), Joash, King of Israel, captured Jerusalem and broke down the northern wall (2 Kings xiv., 8-14), which, however, Uz ziah, son of Amaziah (78o-74o B.c.) repaired. When Judah be came tributary to Assyria, Heze kiah improved the defences of his capital and arranged for a water supply, foreseeing the im pending attack. This came in 701 but failed. In 586 Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the fortifications were dis mantled.
Nehemiah's Work.—About 445 Nehemiah rebuilt the walls, including both hills in the peri phery. His scheme provided for , (I) the following gates : on the east wall, the East Gate, the ' Horse Gate, the Water Gate: on the south wall, the Fountain Gate, the Dung Gate, the Valley Gate : on the west wall there were no gates ; on the north wall the Gate of Ephraim, the Old Gate, the Fish Gate and the Sheep Gate; (2) the towers Hananeel and Neah; (3) the governor's house. Hananeel stood north-west of the Temple and later formed the basis first of the citadel of Simon Maccabaeus and after wards of Herod's Antonia. Nehemiah speaks of the Tomb of David, but the site cannot be identified. Twelve years after Alexander's peaceful entry into Jerusalem in 332 B.C., Ptolemy I., of Egypt, partially demolished the fortifications, which remained in ruins until their restoration by Simon II. (219-199 B.c.). The new walls were soon overthrown. In 168 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes destroyed them again when he captured Jerusalem and laid the Temple waste. The city now sunk to the lowest state since the Captivity. Antiochus brought in a Greek garri son and built for them a citadel, the Akra, which commanded the eastern hill and the city of David. The site of the Akra is much disputed : the position at the north-east corner of the pres ent al-Aksa mosque suits the mutually consistent accounts in Jo sephus and the books of the Maccabees. The huge underground cistern which is there may well have been the garrison's water supply. Judas Maccabaeus recaptured Jerusalem but the Akra defied him. The Jews erected walls to cut it off from the city and Temple. The Akra fell to Simon Maccabaeus who demolished it and also lowered the hill on which it stood to prevent the Temple from being dominated again. The effect of this was to join the city and the Temple. To replace the Akra he built another cita del, mentioned above. Somewhere about this time a second or outer wall was built, to the north of the first wall. Pompey be sieged and took Jerusalem in 65 B.C. In 54 Crassus plundered the Temple.