ReViews: Focus on Ancient Jerusalem

“... and it always seems to me that if we dig deeply there, we will reach that layer of soil on which God’s footprints are still engraved.”—Leah Goldberg

No expense has been spared producing this absolutely stunning book! Measuring just under 10 inches by 14 inches, weighing almost 6 pounds and sumptuously illustrated with more than 150 pictures including maps, architectural plans and reconstructions, as well as new and archival photographs, all printed on heavy-weight, high-quality, glossy paper, this publication is indeed a coffee table book. But it is much more than just a collection of pretty pictures. Although subtitled “The Story of Ancient Jerusalem,” it actually tells many stories: It tells the story of how archaeologists digging in Jerusalem a hundred years ago identified the oldest part of the city—popularly known today as the City of David; it tells a story of Biblical Jerusalem that Israeli guides recount for hundreds of thousands of visitors who make their way to the City of David each year; and it tells a story of how a modern Jewish community has recently been established in the City of David.

The book’s author, Ahron Horovitz, lives in the City of David and directs the entity that published the book, Megalim—the City of David Institute for Jerusalem Studies. The book’s foreword—written by distinguished archaeologist and scholar Dr. Gabriel Barkay—states that “in recent years the City of David has become a National Park” that not only “attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year,” but is also “the most visited ancient site in the country.”