Jerusalem is a city that, by all the rules of archaeology and urban planning, should never have arisen where it stands: there is no river, sea, or trade route nearby, and the surrounding land is rocky and dry. This is a detailed history of Jerusalem—from its first mention on the Egyptian "curse" tablets of the 19th century BCE to the Six-Day War of 1967: three thousand years of wars, destruction, and almost maniacally precise rebuilding on the same stone.

Along the way are the siege of the Assyrian king Sennacherib and King Hezekiah's tunnel, carved into the rock without a single blueprint; the destruction of the First and Second Temples; the platform dug by King Herod, on which the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock stand today; the walls of Suleiman the Magnificent and the division of the city in the 20th century. This is a story not just about an ancient city, but about the only place on the planet that three world religions simultaneously call their center—and that's why they never stop fighting over it.

Chapters:
00:00 The City Without a Cause
01:18 The Mystery the Map Cannot Explain
02:49 The First Name in Execration Texts
03:47 David, the Ark, and Solomon's Temple
04:59 The Assyrian Siege and King Hezekiah's Tunnel
06:35 The Destruction of Babylon and the Birth of an Idea
09:15 Herod Pours the Mountain: The Birth of the Western Wall
10:34 Rome Erases the City's Name
12:05 Cross, Crescent, and Dome on the Same Mountain
14:51 The Crusaders, Saladin, and Suleiman's Walls
16:49 The City Emerges Beyond Its Walls
17:59 The 20th Century: Partition and What Remained Unchanged

Sources:
Execration Texts (execration texts, 19th–18th centuries BC, "Rushalimum") — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execrat...
Center for Online Judaic Studies, Execration Texts (translation/dating) — https://cojs.org/the_execration_texts...
Amarna Letter EA 286 (Abdi-Heba, ruler of Jerusalem, 14th century BCE) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarna_...
Bible Odyssey — "Jerusalem in the Amarna Letters" — https://www.bibleodyssey.org/articles...
City of David — Siloam Inscription and Hezekiah's Tunnel — https://cityofdavid.org.il/en/the-sil...
Broad Wall (Hezekiah's Wall, Jewish Quarter) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_W...)
Sennacherib's Annals / Prism ("like a bird in a cage") — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sennach...
Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC) — dating and duration of the siege — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_o...)
British Museum — Cyrus Cylinder, Persian religious policy — https://www.britishmuseum.org/collect...
Large Stone Structure (dispute over the dating of "Davidian era" buildings) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_S...
Herod the Great (years of reign, construction of the Temple Mount platform) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_t...
Western Stone (weight of the largest stones of the retaining wall) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western...
Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Helen, Constantine, consecrated 335) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_...
Madaba Map (dating of the mosaic, 542–570) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madaba_Map
Encyclopaedia Britannica — Dome of the Rock — https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dome...
First Muslim conquest of Jerusalem (638, terms of capitulation) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_M...
UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls — https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/148/
Old City (Jerusalem) — Dimensions and area of ​​the Old City — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Cit...)
Mishkenot Sha'ananim — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mishken...
Demographic history of Jerusalem (19th-century population estimates) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogra...