The Walls of Jerusalem Teem With Life
Birds, and their nests, lizards, bats, geckos....
(Jerusalem)—The mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, is promoting a project to clean up the walls of Jerusalem, restore them, and build parks around them. As part of the project, ornithologists in Israel have located the nests of swifts, while mapping for the first time the animals and plants that have found a home in the walls surrounding the Old City. (Photo: Mosaic)
Reporter Jonathan Lis describes why swifts are such remarkable birds: "For 10 months of the year they are airborne - eating, mating on the wing and sleeping during prolonged gliding - and only come down to earth for two months, on their atrophied legs, to nest. In the wild they nest on cliffs, but in the Old City of Jerusalem they found a worthy substitute in the cracks of the Western Wall.
According to the article in Haaretz, part of the city's project entails uprooting the flora from the walls, after roots unhinged some of the stones, taking into account the resident agama lizards, bats and falcons. The Western Wall flora is also a keeper, notes Lis, since the hyssop has become part of the historic look of the city.
Other interesting discoveries surrounding the walls, which were built in the 16th century, include: "Pigeons, jackdaws and sparrows make use of the 344 firing loopholes built along the wall to build their nests. Other birds, such as kestrels, take advantage of the crenellated upper edges of the wall as observation points for gathering food. In the cracks of the wall live geckos, while rats and other rodents occupy the spaces at the base of the wall."
