July 8, 2010, Updated September 24, 2012

A 100-year-old Turkish hand grenade from the Ottoman period has been discovered inside an old Jerusalem city wall.

Grenade-location-in-wall

The grenade as it was discovered inside the wall. Photograph by the Conservation Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The grenade, which still contained 200-300 grams of explosives, was found when a conservation team from the Israel Antiquities Authority dismantled fragments of a crushed stone that needed to be replaced in the city wall next to Damascus gate.

Inside they discovered a fist-sized chunk of metal in the core of the wall.

The conservation work is being carried out within the framework of the Jerusalem Walls Conservation Project, which is a joint effort by the Prime Minister’s Office, the Jerusalem Development Authority, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Jerusalem Municipality. Director of conservation is Fuad Abu Taa.

Police sappers were called to the site and later carried out a controlled explosion in a safe location.

“The stone was partially crushed and someone probably chose it as a place to hide the hand grenade,” said Yoram Saad, head of the Implementation Branch of the Israel Antiquities Authority Conservation Department.

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