City of David

The original Jebusite stronghold David captured and made his capital (2 Samuel 5:6-9). It sits on the southeastern ridge of Jerusalem, south of today's Temple Mount — a narrow spur of land flanked by the Kidron and Tyropoeon valleys, with the Gihon Spring on its eastern slope. David moved the Ark here, and it was where Solomon was anointed (1 Kings 1). Excavations since the 1860s have uncovered massive Canaanite-era fortifications, Hezekiah's tunnel and Pool of Siloam, dozens of clay seal impressions (bullae) with biblical names, and the controversial "Stepped Stone Structure" that some identify as David's palace foundation.