250 Nadav Na’aman next to the segment that stood ‘opposite the tombs of David’. The Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool also appear in the description of the tour conducted by Nehemiah around the destroyed city wall of Jerusalem (Neh 2,14-15). All scholars agree that the two segments of the rebuilt wall mentioned in Neh 3,15-16 were located near the southeastern end of the city (31). The King’s Garden is mentioned in 2 Kgs 25,4 and Jer 52,7. Weill suggested that it was located on the slopes of the Kidron Valley in the southeast end of the City of David, and was irrigated by Canal II, and later by Canal IV (32). In his discussion of the Siloam Tunnel, Ussishkin suggested that Hezekiah, in imitation to the kings of Assyria, planted a royal park near the walls of the City of David, and that the water of the Siloam tunnel were used to irrigate the garden situated outside the city, near the southeast of the City of David (33). The garden of Uzza, which in 2 Kgs 21,18 is called ‘the garden of his house’, is clearly the King’s Garden mentioned in 2 Kgs 25,4; Jer 52,7 and Neh 3,15. Hence the reference in Neh 3,16 to the tombs of David refers to the tombs of the late kings of Judah who were buried in the garden of Uzza (34). Like other ancient Near Eastern kings, the kings of Judah built more than one palace, and I assume that a royal residence was built near the newly planted royal park (see Jer 22,13-14)(35). Manasseh’s ‘garden of his house’ probably refers to this residence (compare 1 Kgs 21,1-2). (31) M. AVI-YONAH, “The Walls of Nehemiah – A Minimalist View”, IEJ 4 (1954) 239-248 (esp. 240); JEREMIAS, Heiligengräber, 56; H.G.M. WILLIAMSON, “Nehemiah’s Wall Revisited”, PEQ 116 (1984) 81-88; H. ESHEL, “Jerusalem under Persian Rule: The City’s Layout and the Historical Background”, The History of Jerusalem: The Biblical Period (eds. S. AHITUV – A. MAZAR) (Jerusalem 2000) 333-341 (esp. 334) (Hebrew). (32) WEILL, “La Pointe sud”, 113-117; ID., La cité de David. Campagne de 1923-1924 (Paris 1947) 57-73. WEILL (“La Pointe sud”, 117) concluded his early discussion as follows: “Au-dessous de la vieille courtine J 1, dans le Cédron qui s’élargit et se creuse, l’eau trouve elle de vastes pentes où l’irrigation entretient un verger magnifique: les Jardins du roi fleurissent toujours, du haut en bas de ce flanc de vallée”. See also Y. SHILOH, Excavations at the City of David (Qedem 19; Jerusalem 1984) 23. (33) D. USSISHKIN, “The Water Systems of Jerusalem during Hezekiah’s Reign”, Meilenstein. Festgabe für Herbert Donner (eds. M. GÖRG – M. WEIPPERT) (ÄAT 30; Wiesbaden 1995) 300-303. For criticism of Ussishkin’s suggestion that the Siloam tunnel was hewn mainly for the watering of the royal park, see A. MAZAR, “Was Hezekiah’s Tunnel Dug in Vain”, Cathedra 78 (1995) 187-188 (Hebrew); ID., “Jerusalem’s Water Supply in the First Temple Period”, The History of Jerusalem (AHITUV – MAZAR) 221-224 (Hebrew). (34) Weill (La cité de David, 35-44) argued that the burials after the reign of Ahaz were outside the walls of Jerusalem. Provan (Hezekiah, 136 and n. 12) criticized his suggestion, arguing that Manasseh’s palace, and therefore the garden of Uzza (2 Kgs 21,18), were within the walls of Jerusalem. He ignored the explicit reference to the king’s garden and the tombs of David in Neh 3,15-16, and did not consider the possibility that the kings of Judah could have had more than one residence. Moreover, Provan (Hezekiah, 134-138) apparently assumed that our sources supply detailed information of the building operations of the kings of Judah, and dismissed all suggestions that are not based on evidence explicitly mentioned in the Bible. It must be emphasized that we know very little about the building projects carried out by the kings of Judah, and it is entirely legitimate to make assumptions on the basis of the archaeological research of Jerusalem and ancient Near Eastern documents. (35) An example of a garden located near the palace appears on Ashurbanipal’s garden party relief. See P. ALBENDA, “Grapevines in Ashurbanipal’s Garden”, BASOR 215 (1974) 5-17; R.D. BARNETT, “Assurbanipal’s Feast”, Eretz Israel 18 (1985) 1*-6*; K.-H. DELLER, “Assurbanipal in der Gartenlaube”, BaghM 18 (1987) 229-238; I. ZIFFER, “What Happened under the Grapevine? New Insights into Ashurbanipal’s Garden Party Relief”, Eretz Israel 27 (2003) 204-211, with earlier literature (Hebrew).