There is a massive expansion of a ‘biblical theme park’ in Jerusalem with plans to highlight ancient Israel’s Biblical “King’s Garden” which is mentioned several times in the Bible. Visitors to the proposed King’s Garden will be able to enjoy restaurants, relaxing views, and even take a ride on a cable car that would carry tourists up and down the steep hills.
The proposed seven-story cultural center would focus on the archeological discoveries of the King’s Garden, known from the Hebrew Bible as ‘Gan HaMelekh’ repeatedly in 2 Kings 25:4, Jeremiah 39:4, Nehemiah 3:15, and also referred to in Zechariah 14:10 which mentions “the royal winepresses.”
This would be the second significant Biblical discovery opened up to tourists in the last couple of months. The Pilgrimage Road, an ancient path that would have been taken by Jesus, just opened up this year.
Not everyone is happy about these new discoveries however. The Muslim community in Jerusalem are demanding a stop to these developments. They are against any archeological digs in the region, because every new ancient discovery legitimizes the Jewish heritage of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is not a holy site in Islam. Muhammad never set foot in Jerusalem and he taught his followers to pray towards Mecca – not Jerusalem. However, Jerusalem is extremely important to the colonialism of Islam. Early Islamic raiders took control of Jerusalem as a part of their jihad against unbelievers in the Levant, Middle East, Africa, and Europe. A common pattern for conquering Jihadist raiders was to destroy churches and synagogues and immediately replace them with mosques in an effort to erase all memories of any religion prior to Islam.
Under Islamic control, non-Muslims were not allowed to visit or conduct research in Jerusalem. It was off limits, however that all changed during the Six Day War of 1967 when a coalition of Arab States (Egypt, Jordan, and Syria) fought Israel. Israel won a miraculous victory in only six days taking the city of Jerusalem from Jordan!
For the first time ever, Jews were finally allowed to enter back into their ancient city again. However a group of Muslims, unable to defeat the Jews, ran to the city and built makeshift houses in the current location of the King’s Garden and are hoping for humanitarian shields against their removal. Several shanty town houses were quickly erected by Muslim squatters in the 1970s and 80s to maintain an artificial Islamic presence in Jerusalem. This presence has prompted humanitarian calls for restrictions on any building, research or archeological digs in the area, but this year, the zoning commission of Israel has had enough and have moved forward with the plans.
They know that the war in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran are making the headlines and few people are focused on Jerusalem.
Though there is no current date for completion, current construction efforts show that the groundbreaking ceremony has already happened without any fanfare and Biblical tourists to the Holy Land can expect to see the gardens in the near future.
Below is a video posted on X of the current construction taking place on the King’s Garden.
