I read James Michner’s “The Tell” a long time ago. Really interesting stuff on how the first village was built on a bit of a hill for protection. When it would get attacked and destroyed they’d built another town on top of it (and a bit higher). The book starts off with the people on the modern town (and now on a hill, or tell, 100 feet tall or whatever), and then Michner backward in time through the generations and down through the excavations.
Did you ever read Michener? I loved his work “The Source”. He studied Yigael Yadin and Yadin came to our excavation at Qumran. I was the Project Geologist on several excavations at Qumran, which Yadin also excavated a few times. Jerusalem has been destroyed so many times that the subsequent building on top of the ruins have elevated the city by about 90-100’. I have toured the excavations (City of David) a few times, and it is an amazing job that has lasted for 40 years. I toured under the Temple Mount and have been able to examine the Solomon’s Stables under the El Asqa Mosque, which is on the South side of the Mount. Unfortunately, the Arabs have demolished the Stables and built an Underground Mosque (they say), but rumor has it they are storing weapons there. Under the Northest side of the Temple Mount, there ae extensive passages that have been excavated, but not open to the Public. There is a modern Synagogue that is constructed underground on the Western Wall that connects to the Kotel Katan, or little Wall to the North. In reality, there has been a few areas under the mount that need to be excavated.