Mamilla

Mamilla () is a neighbourhood of Jerusalem that was established in the late 19th century outside the Old City, west of the Jaffa Gate. Until 1948 it was a mixed Jewish–Arab business district. Between 1948 and 1967, it was located along the armistice line between the Israeli and Jordanian-held sector of the city, and many buildings were destroyed by Jordanian shelling. The Israeli government approved an urban renewal project for Mamilla, apportioning land for residential and commercial zones, including hotels and office space. The Mamilla Mall opened in 2007.

Geography

The neighbourhood of Mamilla is located within the northwest extension of the Hinnom Valley, which extends from the southwest corner of the Old City along the city's western wall. The neighbourhood is bounded by the Jaffa Gate and Jaffa Road to the east and north, the downtown and Rehavia neighbourhood above it to the west, and Yemin Moshe's upward slope along its southwestern edge. Its total area is 120 dunam ().

History

Roman period

The now dry "Mamilla Pool", with a capacity of 30,000 cubic metres, was probably built by Herod the Great. An underground channel connected it to Hezekiah's Pool, situated inside the city walls and in immediate proximity to Herod's royal palace. Herod is known to have built the Pool of the Towers (probably identical to Hezekiah's Pool) and the Serpent's Pool (Birket es-Sultan, Sultan's Pool), which were both fed by aqueducts coming from the Mamilla Pool.W. D. Schram of Utrecht University,
Pools of Jerusalem
'. Retrieved 21 November 2013

Byzantine period

The massacre of Christians during the Persian invasion of 614 at the Mamilla Pool, attributed by a Christian chronicler to Jewish revenge after years of Byzantine repression, was documented by an archaeological find in a chapel containing hundreds of human skeletons of urban dwellers of both sexes and of relatively young age. The site of the chapel is now covered over by the Mamilla Mall parking house.

Crusader period

Stone-carved sarcophagi from the Crusader period are visible west of Mamilla Pool among the tombs of the historical Mamilla cemetery, probably the remains of a cemetery of the Augustinian canons of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Mamluk period

The elaborate mausoleum of Emir ‘Ala al-Din Aydughdi ibn ‘Abdallah el-Kubaki, who died in Jerusalem in 1289, is known as Turbat el-Kubakiya.

Ottoman period

In the late 19th century, the area around the Old City walls was barren and undeveloped. It was only notable for the junction of paths that would become Jaffa Road and the highway to Jaffa, with the road to Hebron outside the Jaffa Gate. Among its first structures was the ''Hospice Saint Vincent de Paul'', part of the emerging French Compound. The early building developed as an extension of the adjacent souk along the city walls at the Jaffa Gate as a quarter for merchants and artisans. It became home for commerce and residences that could not find room within the overcrowded Old City, and several of Jerusalem's prominent modern businesses, like Hotel Fast, were first built here. In 1908, the Ottoman authorities erected a clock tower above Jaffa Gate. The British removed it a decade later.

British Mandate

The British attempted to preserve historical structures in Jerusalem, among which the city walls were identified as such an element, so British workers acted to clear away the stalls on their perimeter and maintain an open area between the walls and the rest of the New City in the interest of an aesthetically pleasing visual basin. By the same token, planners demolished the Ottoman clock tower to preserve a historic skyline.

Following the approval of the 1947 UN Partition Plan, an Arab protest aiming to march from the Jaffa Gate to Princess Mary Street was stopped by British police on December 2, 1947. This led the protestors to riot, ransack and burn many Jewish stores, invoking a reprisal from Jewish militias, who fired at the rioters. An Arab-owned cinema was burned to the ground. Several Jewish residents were stabbed over the course of the 1947 Jerusalem riots, one of the events leading to the area's decades-long stagnation and use as a no man's land during the war of 1948

Jordanian period

As the 1948 Arab-Israeli War commenced, the neighbourhood's location between Israeli and Jordanian forces made it a combat zone, leading to the flight of both Jewish and Arab residents. On May 22, 1948 the US Consul, Thomas C. Wasson, was assassinated shortly after leaving the French Consulate in the Mamilla district. After the signing of the 1949 Armistice Agreements

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases