Rock-cut moat between the City of David and the Ophel

Overview

Excavations in the Givati Parking Lot, on the ridge south of the Ophel and Temple Mount, exposed a man-made rock-cut ditch close to the summit of the hill, bounded on both north and south by near-vertical scarps, with an installation of intertwined channels in it. Yuval Gadot, Efrat Bocher, Liora Freud and Yiftah Shalev published it in Tel Aviv 50 (2023) as 'An Early Iron Age Moat in Jerusalem between the Ophel and the Southeastern Ridge/City of David.'

By comparing it with Kathleen Kenyon's 1960s excavation slightly to the east, where she had recorded bedrock dropping to the north where it should rise, the team concluded that one ditch crossed the whole width of the ridge and cut the residential lower city off from the acropolis to the north. The July 2024 announcement gave the joined length as at least 70 m west-east.

The date when the ditch was first cut is not established. The published abstract states it served as a moat by the Late Iron IIA and stayed open until Late Hellenistic construction filled it in. Shalev's 2024 statement adds that Middle Bronze Age cutting is possible because major quarrying in Jerusalem is usually of that date, and that the excavators are 'confident that it was used at the time of the First Temple and the Kingdom of Judah (ninth century BCE)'.

What the evidence shows

• Man-made ditch about 30 m wide and at least 6 m deep near the summit of the Southeastern Ridge, with rock scarps on its north and south sides (Gadot et al., Tel Aviv 50, 2023, abstract).
• An installation of intertwined channels lies in the ditch; its function is described as 'enigmatic' (Gadot et al. 2023, abstract).
• Joined with Kenyon's sloping-bedrock observation farther east, the ditch crosses the full width of the ridge, separating the Southeastern Ridge from the Ophel (Gadot et al. 2023, abstract; City of David Foundation release).
• Press figures: at least 9 m deep, at least 30 m wide, at least 70 m west-east (City of David Foundation release; Times of Israel, 21 July 2024).
• The ditch served as a moat by the Late Iron IIA and was backfilled by Late Hellenistic construction (Gadot et al. 2023, abstract).
• The date of first cutting 'cannot be determined' (Gadot et al. 2023) / 'is unknown' (Shalev, 2024 release).

Open questions

• When it was cut. Gadot, Bocher, Freud and Shalev (Tel Aviv 50, 2023) title the paper 'An Early Iron Age Moat' but state that 'the initial cutting of the ditch cannot be determined'; the fixed point is its use by the Late Iron IIA. Shalev (IAA/City of David release, 2024) raises a Middle Bronze Age cutting because, in his words, such large construction and quarrying works in Jerusalem 'are usually dated to the Middle Bronze Age'. No MB material from the cut itself is reported in the sources read. The full paper is not openly accessible (publisher access restriction), so the ceramic basis of 'Late Iron IIA' is known here only from the abstract.
• Whether this is the Millo or part of it. Gadot (2024 release) says the find 'opens up a renewed discussion' of the terms Ophel and Millo; the release quotes 1 Kgs 11:27. Neither the paper abstract nor the release identifies the moat as the Millo. 'Millo' comes from the root 'fill', and the moat was a cut, later filled only in the Hellenistic period; our reading is that a direct equation needs an argument the sources read here do not make.
• Depth: the 2023 paper gives 'at least 6 m', the 2024 release 'at least nine meters'. Whether this reflects further excavation after the paper went to press or a different measuring point is not stated in either source.

Since 2024

• 2023-07Excavation report published in Tel Aviv 50(2): 147-170 (before the press announcement). [1]
• 2024-07IAA / Tel Aviv University / City of David announcement of the moat, with depth now given as at least 9 m and length at least 70 m. [3]
• 2026-07City of David Foundation page carries the announcement under a 26 July 2026 date; no new data beyond the 2024 release was found in it. [2]

Sources

1. Gadot, Y., Bocher, E., Freud, L. and Shalev, Y. 2023. "An Early Iron Age Moat in Jerusalem between the Ophel and the Southeastern Ridge/City of David." Tel Aviv 50(2): 147-170. doi:10.1080/03344355.2023.2246811 link excavation report
2. City of David Foundation. "Archaeologists have uncovered one of the monumental fortifications that protected the kings of Jerusalem." News in Antiquities (page dated 26 July 2026). link excavation report
3. Times of Israel staff. 2024. "Solving mystery, archaeologists find vast moat that protected Jerusalem's biblical kings." The Times of Israel, 21 July 2024. link study
4. Gadot, Y. and Shalev, Y. 2024. "Die Geschichte des Westabhangs der Davidsstadt." In Jerusalem in archäologischer, historischer und theologischer Perspektive, 35-66. Göttingen: V&R unipress. doi:10.14220/9783737017480.35 link study

2024–2026 check incomplete: limited: web-search quota ran out; checked via Crossref/OpenAlex and the City of David page only