DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
About fifteen acres, with no more than a few thousand people. Israel itself was a small country, and its capital under David was a hill town. That scale fits stories of people who expect to reach the king in person, like the petitioners Absalom stops on the road to the gate (2 Samuel 15:2-4). It does not fit a census of 1,300,000 fighting men (24:9).
Why it’s interesting
Nothing dug up in Jerusalem can be dated with certainty to David's reign, and the stepped stone structure on the city's east slope, once credited to him, is now thought centuries older. The shaft long taken for the "water shaft" of 2 Samuel 5:8 is now thought to be a natural crack that never carried water.
Scholarly consensus
Learn the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.