(ORDO NEWS) — A mysterious handprint carved into an ancient dry moat that once surrounded Jerusalem’s Old City 1,000 years ago has been discovered and its meaning has baffled researchers.
And now this riddle can not be solved.
Archaeologists spotted the print during excavations around an infrastructure project to widen the road near Herod’s Gate, which originally exposed part of the moat.
A huge ditch was cut in stone around the Old City, its width was 10 meters and its depth was from 2 to 7 meters.
According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), it took the Crusaders five weeks in 1099 to cross it and destroy the city walls and defenses.
While the moat’s function is clear, it stopped the crusaders from invading the holy city, the meaning of the hand remains a mystery.
Archaeologists at the IAA have never been able to figure out who carved the hand into the rock or its meaning.
“Does this symbolize something? Does it point to a specific neighbor element? Or is it just a local prank? Time will tell,” the researchers explain.
The impressive walls and gates of the Old City, visible today, were built in the sixteenth century by the Turkish Ottoman sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent.
The former fortress walls that surrounded the ancient city of Jerusalem were much stronger.
In order for the crusaders to attack the city, the group had to cross the ditch and climb over two thick surrounding walls, which were guarded by their opponents, pouring fire and brimstone from above.
Moreover, there were also hidden tunnels in the fortifications (some of which were discovered by archaeologists during previous excavations), through which the defenders of the city could go into the moat and suddenly attack the enemy, and then disappear, returning back to the city.
The Crusades were one of the bloodiest battles of the late Middle Ages, which was a series of religious wars between 1095 and 1291 in which Christian invaders fought for the Middle East.
It is officially believed that the crusaders had two goals: to free the Eastern Christians from the Muslims and the Holy Sepulcher from the Muslims.
Early medieval Christians traveled to Jerusalem as an act of pilgrimage for the remission of their sins. The crusaders, freeing the tomb from the Muslims, considered the war to some extent a pilgrimage.
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