aelia capitolina - Jerusalem
My quest for the Lost City of Aelia Capitolina.
Twenty years ago, a fellow college student showed me a Roman coin stamped with the head of the emperor Hadrian. The coin was dated around 130 AD, during the time when the Romans occupied Jerusalem. 
It is common knowledge that the Romans sacked Jerusalem in 10 AD, leveling the city to rubble. However, many people including myself were unaware that Hadrian later built a beautiful Roman city over the ruins during the period 130 – 140 AD. He named the city Aelia Capitolina, and it was laid out with beautiful marble roads, pillars, shops, large villas, roman baths, swimming pools, cisterns fed by an aqueduct, massive engraved gates, and a temple dedicated to the worship of Jupiter.
It is common knowledge that the Romans sacked Jerusalem in 10 AD, leveling the city to rubble. However, many people including myself were unaware that Hadrian later built a beautiful Roman city over the ruins during the period 130 – 140 AD. He named the city Aelia Capitolina, and it was laid out with beautiful marble roads, pillars, shops, large villas, roman baths, swimming pools, cisterns fed by an aqueduct, massive engraved gates, and a temple dedicated to the worship of Jupiter.
This beautiful city aroused my interest, and finding the city of Aelia Capitolina became my quest!
A few months later, I arrived in the old city of Jerusalem and was greeted by a labyrinth of winding alleyways, narrow streets, aged buildings, churches, and market bazaars surrounded by an atmosphere of frenetic energy.
Goats and a donkey creating traffic nightmare
The city was surrounded by very high ramparts, but I found a winding staircase that took me to the top of the massive walls where I walked around for about an hour, enjoying a bird’s eye view of the city. I saw courtyards, housetops, steeples, minarets, domes, but virtually no evidence of any ancient Roman city.
Subsequent Muslim, Christian, and Jewish rule over the years had obliterated the Roman presence and instilled a kasbah flavor to the city.
Aelia Capitolina had vanished or so it seemed. My inquiries led me to the Institute of Archaeology in Tel Avivwhere I met an interesting and intriguing contact. He showed up at 5 A.M. on a cold, misty morning at my hotel door, hurriedly bundled me into a waiting car, and drove to the Jewish Quarter without any explanation. We entered an archway close to the western wall (wailing wall) into a dark tunnel lit by a single, naked, dangling light bulb. On one side of the tunnel wall there was a small door guarded by two heavily armed soldiers. The guards opened the door and hustled us into a small room, locking us inside. I remember glancing up at the dim light bulb and frantically wondering if I was being brought into an interrogation room.
My nervousness dissipated when I saw a few smiling faces, and I was given a yarmulke to wear. I was told we were going into sacred ground, and my excitement mounted when I saw a small elevator shaft, and a lift supported by chains and pulleys. I realized I was being taken down into my first archaeological dig!
The lift took us slowly down the deep, narrow shaft and came to rest into a large room with an ornate marbled floor. I was elated! We were in the living room of some wealthy Roman in the lost city of Aelia Capitolina! The room was in remarkable shape, with perfectly formed pillars, decorated walls, mosaic tiles and a fireplace. We stepped outside the room into a corridor that led to a marbled street, flanked on both sides by well preserved stone columns. The large paving stones on the street were in perfect condition, and led to an arched bridge with the remnants of shops on both sides. I toured the excavated portions of the underground city excitedly, amazed by the longevity of the solid stone structures. The public baths and drinking water reservoir were in very good condition, filled with water from some hidden aqueduct or seeping rainfall. Excavation of Aelia Capitolina was still in progress, but viewing the underground city was a novel experience for me. My quest had been fulfilled!
Today, excavation is still continuing, and a portion has been exposed and made visible to the public. Visitors to Jerusalem can now stroll down part of a Roman street in Aelia Capitolina.
Interestingly, I came across an article in the Israeli Haaretz newspaper written a year ago on Aelia Capitolina. This is an excerpt from the article: “Following the latest wave of excavations, which began in the mid-1990s, more and more archaeologists have become convinced that Aelia Capitolina was a much larger and more important city than was once thought, and its influence on the later development of modern Jerusalem was dramatic”.
I am happy to think that I was convinced of that when I decided on my trek
Categories: adventure travel, aelia capitolina, author, foreign travel, global, jerusalem, kasbah, lifestyle,novel, photography, roman cities, travel, trekking, Uncategorized, united nations, wailing wall, world,writer, writing Tags: adventure travel, aelia capitolina, archaeology, articles, author, jerusalem, publish,roman cities, roman ruins, travel, trekking, wailing wall, writer, writing 37 Comments
Palestine aka Greater Israel is Jewish territory according to International law and treaties, additionally incorporating the January 3, 1919 Faisal Weizmann agreement executed by both parties in London on January 3, 1919.
ReplyDeleteThe Law of Return is for The Jews and reciprocating equity by the Arabs
The Law of Return is for The Jews, the option to return to Greater Israel and The Arab-Palestinians to leave Greater Israel and return to the Arab countries they originated from. The Arab-Palestinians should move to the Million plus Jewish homes and land confiscated by the Arab countries from the million persecuted and expelled Jewish families and the 120,440 sq. km. of Real estate property the Arabs confiscated from the million plus Jewish families and their children expelled from Arab countries. That is the only viable alternative. (why are we ignoring the Faisal Weizmann agreement of January 3, 1919 which is the only valid agreement executed by both the Arabs and the Jews). In reviewing various legal aspects of agreements and resolutions to be applied to third parties, all resolutions by the UN which are recommendation only, must be executed and agreed to by the parties otherwise they have no validity. Therefore, any and all resolutions issued by the UN which have not been executed and agreed to by the parties have no affect and are null and void. This applies to any of the League of Nation and the UN resolutions that affect the territories and boundaries of Israel and any other resolutions that affect Israel. That leaves us back to the territory allocated by the San Remo Conference of 1920 and its confirmation by the Treaty of Sevres and Lausanne, which is all of Palestine. (By the way I have the minutes of the 1918-19 Paris Conference, The 1920 San Remo Conference and The Treaty of Sevres which was executed by all the Supreme Allied Powers).
Face it and stop hallucinating, once and for all. There will never be an Arab-Palestinian State in Greater Israel West of the Jordan River (Judea and Samaria). Jerusalem the United Eternal Capital of the Jewish people.
Responding to arguments that million Jews expelled from Arab countries has no bearing on the Arabs who left Palestine or Arabs displaced from Jewish land and or formerly Ottoman government land has nothing to do with each other. The law of equity in not a one way street, it works both ways. The Arab nations that expelled the million Jewish families (who lived in the Arab countries for over 2500 years and owned 120,440 sq. km. of land, homes, businesses and personal assets valued in the trillions of dollars) they are the ones who asked the Arabs in Palestine to vacate their homes while they obliterate the Jews and they are the ones supporting the Arab-Palestinians in demanding law of return and compensation. Those Arab countries are financing the Arab-Palestinians in their quest to eject the Jews a second time from their own historical ancestral homeland. The best and only solution is a population transfer.
YJ Draiman
Over one million Jews and their families have been forced to flee from Arab countries and hundreds of Jewish communities have been ethnically cleansed throughout this century. Most of these refugees now live in Israel and their old homes are no more. The Arab countries confiscated the Jewish personal assets, businesses, homes and 120,400 sq. km. of Real estate property which is 6 times the size of Israel and valued in the trillions of dollars. In fact, Jews who immigrated to Israel from Arab and Muslim lands and their descendants constitute over 50% of Israel's population.
Face it - No Arab-Palestinian state west of the Jordan River
ReplyDeleteIf you read the 1917 Balfour Declaration (Which emulated Napoleons 1799 letter to the Jewish community in Palestine promising that The National Home for The Jewish people will be reestablished in Palestine, as the Jews are the rightful owners). Nowhere does it state an Arab entity west of The Jordan River. The San Remo Conference of 1920 which incorporated The Balfour Declaration into International Law does not state an Arab entity west of The Jordan River, confirmed by Article 95 in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres. The Mandate for Palestine terms does not state an Arab entity west of the Jordan River. It specifically states a Jewish National Home in Palestine without limiting the Jewish territory in Palestine. It also states that the British should work with the Jewish Agency as the official representative of the Jews in Palestine to implement the National Home of the Jewish people in Palestine. I stress again; nowhere does it state that an Arab entity should be implemented west of the Jordan River.
As a matter of historical record, The British reallocated over 77% of Jewish Palestine to the Arab-Palestinians in 1922 with specific borders and Jordan took over additional territory like the Gulf of Aqaba which was not part of the allocation to Jordan.
No where in any of the above stated agreements does it provides for an Arab entity west of the Jordan River. The U.N. resolutions are non-binding with no legal standing, same applies to the ICJ. The Oslo Accords are null and void.
It is time to relocate the Arabs in Israel to Jordan and to the homes and the 120,000 sq. km. the Arab countries confiscated from the over a million Jewish families that they terrorized and expelled and those expelled Jews were resettled in Israel. They can use the trillions of dollars in reparations for the Jewish assets to finance the relocation of the Arabs and help set-up an economy and industry instead of living on the world charity. The Arab countries were allocated over 13 million sq. km. with a wealth of oil reserves.
YJ Draiman
Possession is nine tenths of the law – Israel has it.
Political Rights in Palestine aka The Land of Israel were granted only and exclusively to the Jews in all of Palestine and the right to settle in all of Palestine with no exclusions.