Kishle

The rectangular building known as the Kishle (Turkish for "temporary encampment") is situated to the south of the Tower of David, just inside and south of the Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. Over the years I had heard about the excavations under the building that revealed the foundations of King Herod's Palace and was eager to see them for myself. Mister Handmade in Israel and I were recently able to join a tour of the building which first took us the top of the Jerusalem Citadel (another name for the Tower of David) where we enjoyed the panoramic views of the Old and New City.

We continued through the citadel, examining Hasmonean and Herodian walls along the way, then entered a dry moat surrounding the citadel where we were shown a magnificent stepped pool that was part of King Herod’s Palace. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus tells us that Herod's Palace complex, begun in the last quarter of the first century BCE, comprised a palace with two wings divided by pools and gardens and was protected by three large towers on the northwestern corner of the precinct.
In 1898 the moat in which we had walked was narrowed and blocked up to enable carriages to enter the Old City during the visit of the German Emperor, Wilhelm II. Among the enormous changes carried out by the Turks in the Jaffa Gate plaza prior to the emperor's visit, the most significant was the destruction of part of the wall next to the gate, when the moat was filled in with earth. Later the moat was turned into a shuk (market) for Jerusalem traders.

The prison corridor in the days of the British Mandate.

To see the Kishle itself we climbed a circular metal staircase to a fenced roof, before entering the barracks. A long hall of concrete, stone and dirt greeted us. Work beneath the barracks is still very much in progress.
The Kishle was first built in 1834 by Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian ruler of Palestine at the time. The building continued to be used as a military compound when Ottoman rule resumed in the city in 1841, and during the British Mandate it was used as a police station and a prison where some members of the Jewish underground were incarcerated. It stopped being used as a prison after Israel recaptured the Old City during the 1967 Six-Day War, and the nearby headquarters building became an Israeli police station.

Turkish soldiers of the Camel Unit in the Kishle, 1910.

Photo from National Photo Collection of Israel.

Investiture by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, in Barracks Square, 19th March 1918. This image clearly shows the Kishle as a two story building with a tiled roof.

Photo from Israeli Decorations.

Prince Arthur, third son of Queen Victoria, presents medals and honours in Barracks Square. Note the Kishle on the left. 19th March 1918.

Photo from Israeli Decorations.

Our guide showed us photographs from the period of the British Mandate. General Allenby was here and in the stormy years that followed the building was used to hold Irgun fighters struggling to establish a Jewish state. They left their mark on the prison walls, below, with the Irgun emblem - a map which shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state - as well as the name of the 'artist', Shmuel Matza, a former Irgun fighter and then a lawyer. Detained in autumn 1947, Matza slipped his breakfast fork in his pocket just before the guards accompanied him back to his quarters and when the lights went out and everyone was sleeping, including the police officers, he quietly carved the emblem of the Irgun and his name deep into the prison walls.

The Kishle was slated for renovations in the year 2000. The wrought iron bars of the prison were going to be torn down and replaced with a new multipurpose space for temporary exhibitions and lectures but before any new cement could be added, archaeological digs, led by Amit Re'em from the Israel Antiquities Authority, began in 1999. They lasted two years.
Pulling up the floorboards, archaeologists found layer upon layer of Jerusalem's history. They found an 11th century cloth-dying and leather-tanning factory, demonstrating Jewish life in Jerusalem during the Crusader period, as recorded in the diary of Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Israel in 1172. Around 200 Jews were believed to be living in the vicinity of the citadel. They discovered the foundations of King Herod's Palace, described as the most magnificent dwelling in the entire Roman Empire, lined in marble and decorated in gold. Many believe the palace may have served as the Praetorium, the site of Jesus' trial by Pontius Pilate, along the original route of the Via Dolorosa that Jesus followed to his crucifixion. Next to the palace foundations they found the walls built by the Hasmonean kings at the end of the second century and early first century BCE, and a wall built by King Hezekiah in the 8th century BCE.

The Kishle will eventually be transformed into a large visitor site, including a cutting-edge multimedia archaeological centre within the historic structure, alongside a new, two-story entrance and exhibition gallery building with space for lectures and events. I was happy to see it in it's raw state, before the building work really begins.

* This post has been shared on All Seasons, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Sharon's Souvenir's, Our World Tuesday, Foto Tunes, Travel Tuesday and My Corner of the World.

"Rock Paper Scissors" at the Tower of David Museum

It's been a busy summer and I have a lot to show you, starting with a wonderful exhibition I visited back in July at the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem's Old City. The exhibition "Rock Paper Scissors" presents the work of Karen Sargsyan who was born in Yerevan, capital of Armenia, in 1973. He studied martial arts at a sports college, excelling in boxing, and was a professional boxer for seven years. During his sport studies Sargsyan took anatomy courses. The workings of the body, muscles and joints fascinated him and the results can now be seen in his sculptures.

Owing to the unstable political and economic situation in Armenia, Sargsyan moved with his family to the Netherlands in 1998 where he began working in drawing and sculpture and was accepted to the prestigious Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Sargsyan is regarded as one of the leading paper artists in the world. His works have been displayed in museums worldwide, including the Tate Modern in London and the Centre Pompidou in Metz.

In the Tower of David Museum exhibition Sargsyan uses the stories, legends, myths and history of Jerusalem as a basis for his sculptures, bringing several personalities from the long history of the city "to life". Nine spectacular figures, all of whom at some point in history had influence over the city of Jerusalem, can be seen within the museum's archaeological garden and citadel. These range from King David, King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, to Cyrus of Persia, Herod the Great, Queen Melisende and Suleiman the Magnificent, as well as the more modern public figures of Anna Ticho and Eliezer Ben Yehuda. (Unfortunately the figure of Ben Yehuda had been removed on the day I visited.) 

The exhibition posed a new challenge for Sargsyan. Though most of his work has been using paper, for the first time he was presenting his works outdoors, so he had to find materials which would survive the weather. Additionally, the material had to yield to his knife with a similar flexibility to paper. These two considerations led the artist to create almost all of the figures in the exhibition using very thin sheets of coloured aluminium, cutting them either before or during his work. He used over 100 kilogrammes of aluminium sheets and 2,500 knives, all of which he transported from Amsterdam to his makeshift studio in Israel.

Sargsyan created each of these sculptures without sketching the figure beforehand. His creative process is spontaneous and relies on very little planning, though he does use a wooden frame as a general outline for his works and the face mask is common to all his figures. For the most part, however, he relies on intuition to produce his multi-layered sculptures, which are full of depth and humour and often seem as if at any moment they will burst out of their paper shell and spring to life.

The Tower of David, also known as the Jerusalem Citadel, is an ancient citadel located near the Jaffa Gate entrance of the Old City of Jerusalem. The citadel that stands today dates to the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. It was built on the site of a series of earlier ancient fortifications of the Hasmonean, Herodian-era, Byzantine and Early Muslim periods, after being destroyed repeatedly during the last decades of Crusader presence in the Holy Land. It contains important archaeological finds dating back over 2,000 years including a quarry dated to the First Temple period, and provides some of the best 360-degree views across the Old City and Modern City. It is also a popular venue for concerts and sound-and-light performances. Some readers of this blog may remember the Koolulam social-musical initiative in which I participated back in June, which took place within the grounds of the ancient citadel.

The name "Tower of David" is due to Byzantine Christians who believed the site to be the palace of King David. They borrowed the name "Tower of David" from the Song of Songs, attributed to Solomon, King David's son.

Whilst it was the "Rock Paper Scissors" exhibition that drew me to the Tower of David Museum, I was fortunate to find another interesting exhibition, "London in Jerusalem", on at the same time.

On 11th December 1917, on the steps of the Tower of David, General Allenby proclaimed British rule and in 1922 the British implemented the Mandate established by the League of Nations. British rule over Jerusalem lasted thirty years, a mere moment in the 3,000 year history of the city. However, in this brief moment, Jerusalem was dramatically changed. When the British took over Jerusalem they found a very poor city, rampant with cholera and no sewage system or electrical lighting to speak of. Governor Ronald Storrs took over the leadership of Jerusalem and brought orderliness and culture to the life of its residents.
The exhibition "London in Jerusalem" examines the extensive cultural activity that the British, Arabs and Jews took part in during the British rule, exploring the music, past-times, drinks, news and cinema of the period. 

Jerusalem became the place for extensive social activity. Choirs were formed, as well as dance troupes and theatres, coffee houses and cinemas, private salons and public cultural events, football pitches and universities. New initiatives were established which boosted the economy and culture of Jerusalem.
The Tower of David exhibition has recreated a Mandate-era cinema, radio entertainment from the 30s and 40s, soirées in the living room and Fink’s Bar. If there was one place that held the secrets of Jerusalem during this time period, it was Fink’s Bar, below. It was here that British officers and locals brushed shoulders, where Jewish resistance fighters and English gentleman would share the bar. In the centre of the exhibition are tables and chairs that one might have found in the many tea houses that started springing up around the city.

The "London in Jerusalem" exhibition highlights the amazing cultural life in Jerusalem under the British Mandate, turning away from the political, religious and symbolic aspects of Jerusalem that usually occupy our attention. For this Brit living in Israel, it was a wonderful way to end my visit to the Tower of David Museum on a hot and sunny July day.

* This post has been shared on All Seasons, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Tuesday's Treasures, The Keeping It Real Link Up, Pictorial Tuesday, Wednesday around the World, Wednesday Link Up.