An excavation conducted at Ẓahal Square, outside and west of the Old City wall of Jerusalem, uncovered remains dating from the late Byzantine–Umayyad to the late Ottoman period, revealing evidence of Jerusalem’s urban expansion in different periods and its fortifications. The earliest remains are a Greek inscription, etched in bedrock during the late Byzantine–Umayyad period. Hewn walls of a deep moat and remains of a forewall from the late Early Islamic period were uncovered, allowing for a reconstruction of Jerusalem’s fortification system along the northwestern corner of the Old City. The city walls and the moat fell into disuse after their destruction by the Ayyubid Sultan al-Malik al-Mu‘azzam ‘Isa in the first quarter of the thirteenth century CE.