Ophel (Mount Zion), protected on three sides by
the Central Valley and the Kidron Valley, which
met at its southern tip. During the reigns of the
Israelite kings david (r. ca. 1010–970 b.c.e.) and
Solomon (r. ca. 970–928 b.c.e.), Jerusalem became
a royal capital and the center of the cult of Yahweh
(the Lord God), the supreme deity of the Hebrews
who was worshipped in Solomon’s Temple. The
city was barely 188,000 square yards in area, or
about the size of a large shopping mall in the
United States today. This was not an unusual size
for an ancient town or city, however. After Solo-
mon’s time, ancient Israel was divided into two
kingdoms, with Jerusalem as the capital of Judah
(the Southern Kingdom) and Samaria the capital
of israel (the Northern Kingdom). The Northern
Kingdom fell to the Assyrian army in 722 b.c.e.,
and the Southern Kingdom was destroyed by the
Babylonians in 686. The Babylonians plundered
and destroyed the city and its temple, carrying
the leading inhabitants into captivity in southern
Mesopotamia. These events were related in the
historical books of the Hebrew Bible (2 Kings, 1
& 2 Chron.), and they inspired the revelations
and visions of the biblical prophets (for example,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel).
A remnant remained in Jerusalem after the
Babylonian conquest until Cyrus the Great of
Persia defeated the Babylonians and allowed the
Israelite exiles to return in 538 b.c.e. The Second
Temple was built around 515 b.c.e., but the resto-
ration of the city and its walls was not completed
until the governorship of Nehemiah (mid-sixth
century b.c.e.). The city grew to twice the size
it had been during the time of the First Temple.
When Alexander the Great’s armies swept throughK 392 Jerusalem