Broad Wall (Jerusalem)

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The Broad Wall (Hebrew: החומה הרחבה, romanized: HaChoma HaRechava) is an ancient defensive wall, located in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. The wall was unearthed in the 1970s by Israeli archaeologist Nahman Avigad. Originally dated to the reign of King Hezekiah (late 8th century BC), it has been attributed in 2024, based on carbon-dating, to the reign of King Uzziah, several decades earlier. The Broad Wall is a massive defensive structure, seven meters thick. The unbroken length of wall uncovered by Avigad's dig runs 65 metres (71.1 yd) long and is preserved in places to a height of 3.3 metres (3.6 yd). It was long believed that the city in this period was confined to the fortified, narrow hill running to the south of the Temple Mount known as the City of David. Avigad's dig demonstrated that by the late eighth century the city had expanded to include the hill to the west of the Temple Mount. As long as the wall was attributed to Hezekiah, the motivation for building it was believed to have been Sennacherib's campaign in Judah, and the presumption was that it might be referred to in Nehemiah 3:8 and Isaiah 22:9–10. Uzziah's motivation, however, was to rebuild the city after the damage brought about by a strong earthquake.