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  This photo is of the Tower of David, on the west side of the old city, and one of its famous symbols. The walls in this site were first built by the Hasmonean kings in the 2^nd Century B.C. in the highest point in the old city (773M). This construction was in order to strengthen the new expanded western side, the "upper city", had no natural defenses -unlike the valley of Kidron on the east side. The site was located in the northwestern corner of the Hasmonean defense walls.
 

   Herod the Great, the great builder of Jerusalem and Israel, added here 3 mighty towers (37-34 BC), naming them after Miriam (his wife, buried in a cave west to the tower), Hippicus (his friend), and Phatsael (Phasaelus, his brother). The western third tower still stands, and is the base of the current citadel. Herod built his palace in the adjacent area south of the towers.

  At the time of Jesus, the Herodian towers were in place. Just northwest of the fortress, outside of the walls at those times and inside the old city of today, was the site of Golgotha, where Jesus was later crucified.