Map of ancient Jerusalem: Imaginary, circa 1750

Cities evolved as primitive societies settled into permanent encampments to breed animals and grow crops. Walls were added for self-defense, as seen in this map of ancient Jerusalem. During its long history Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times and captured and recaptured 44 times. Since no historically genuine maps of the ancient city survived into modern times, this large map populated with thousands of individual inhabitants required a great act of imagination. Created circa 1750, it depicts 159 buildings, gates, and places of historical interest that were known from historical texts to have been a part of Jerusalem 2,000 years earlier. With the exception of buildings that survived into modern times, no images of any reliable kind have survived of what long-lost buildings actually looked like.