Fortress of Antiochus Epiphanes Uncovered in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM – In November 2015, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) sent a news brief to reporters in Jerusalem, calling for a press conference the following day to announce the "solution to one of the greatest questions in the history of Jerusalem."

The announcement did not disappoint: On site, in Jerusalem’s City of David, archaeologist Doron Ben-Ami announced that the famed Akra (citadel) of Antiochus Epiphanes had been discovered.

Up until that announcement, little had been found testifying to the massive Hellenistic intrusion into the city early in the second century B.C. Yet here, at the northwestern portion of the City of David, a massive section of a city wall from that very period was found under layers and layers of construction from later civilizations.