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The City Walls-800-700 BCE
On the western bill, in the area of the Jewish Quarter, a wall of astonishing thickness was uncovered. This wall dates back to the period of the Kingdom of Judah and the end of the First Temple-the reign of King Hezkiyahu (end of the 8th century -BCE). This find enables us, for the first time, to set the limits of the city of Jerusalem in the period of the First Temple and gives us an indication of the strength of its fortifications which finally fell to Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, in 586 BCE. The tab depicts a scarab bearing the likeness of a gryphon-an excellent example of the style current in the Kingdom of Judah in the 8th century BCE, while the envelope shows a reconstruction of the city walls based on the new discoveries.
The corner of a room in a Palace from the period of the Omayyad Caliphs
One of the most exciting and important of recent archaeological finds was the uncovering of a number of royal buildings including a Palace built at the foot of the Mount at the beginning of the Islamic era (beginning of the 8th century). The Moslems consider Jerusalem to be a holy city, and it was there that they built the El Aksa mosque and Dome of the Rock at the end of the 7th and beginning of the 8th centuries, during the rule of the Omayyad dynasty whose centre was in Damascus.
The historical records tell us very little of the activities of this dynasty, particularly insofar as Jerusalem is concerned. The recent digs have provided us with evidence that they built not only on the Temple Mount, but that they also erected a grandiose public building outside the area. This discovery provides us, therefore, with knowledge of yet another stage in Jerusalem's long history.
The stamp depicts the corner of a room containing a pillar from the ground floor of the Caliphs Palace in Jerusalem.
The tab illustrates part of a painted plaster wail in the Omayyad Palace, while the envelope portrays a reconstruction of the Palace and shows where it stood in relation to the Temple Mount.