The name of this impressive fortress conjures up images of the great and powerful King of Israel almost three-thousand years ago. Indeed, when Byzantine Christian visitors saw the tall ancient tower and walls, they assumed it must have been built by him, and likely thought of the phrase the “Tower of David” in Song of Songs (4:4).
The only problem is that King David had nothing to do with it!
Also known as the Jerusalem Citadel, this ancient fortress and present-day museum of the history of Jerusalem sits on ruins of a wall from the times of King Hezekiah from over twenty-five hundred years ago, but everything else is even more recent. Building on a Hasmonean base, the fortress itself was mostly built by Herod the Great, who wanted a palace for his own use and a fortress to protect him from internal and external enemies. Its three towers were named after his brother, Phasael, his wife Miriam, and his friend Hippocus. Their bases still stand: The Romans left the Citadel standing as a testament to their victory when they put down the Great Jewish Revolt in 70 CE. It was conquered, destroyed, and rebuilt many times since, with much of what we see dating back to Crusader and Ottoman times (the latter installed the still-visible minaret). Sitting on the border between East and West Jerusalem, it was used by the Jordanians as a military position until it finally reverted to civilian and cultural use after the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967.
While he was not involved in building the Citadel, perhaps the name Tower of David is not completely mistaken. After all, it was none other than David who moved his capital to Jerusalem and built up the city. He wrote about Jerusalem, sang about Jerusalem, and has inspired Jews to focus on Jerusalem for almost three thousand years. Jerusalem is, in a sense, David’s city. Seeing as this fortress gloriously guards Jaffa Gate, the main entrance into the Old City, perhaps David had something to do with it after all.
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