King David-Era Palace Found in Israel, Archaeologists Say
King David-Era Palace Found in Israel, Archaeologists Say
Archaeologists say they've uncovered two royal buildings from Israel's biblical past, including a palace suspected to have belonged to King David.
The findings at Khirbet Qeiyafa a fortified hilltop city about 19 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of Jerusalem indicate that David, who defeated Goliath in the Bible, ruled a kingdom with a great political organization, the excavators say.
"This is unequivocal evidence of a kingdom's existence, which knew to establish administrative centers at strategic points," read a statement from archaeologists Yossi Garfinkel of the Hebrew University and Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).
There is a distinct political implication in this discovery. There has been considerable speculation among archeologists that the Kingdom of David did not exist, that it was mythical. This discovery has cause developers to stop the development of a housing complex while awaiting for the site to be declared a national park, probably like Masada, another site of important national interest.