Talpiot

Talpiot (Hebrew: תלפיות‎‎, lit. 'turrets' or 'magnificently built') is an Israeli neighborhood in southeast Jerusalem, established in 1922 by Zionist pioneers. It was built as a garden suburb on land purchased by the Tel Aviv-based Palestine Land Development Company and other Jewish building societies.

Talpiot has become a major commercial center and a hub of nonprofit organizations. The Talpiot industrial zone is one of the largest in the country, with plans for expansion as a center of shopping, entertainment and industry.

The name Talpiot derives from a verse in Song of Songs 4:4 – "Thy neck is like the tower of David, built with turrets." According to rabbinic sources, Talpiot refers to the Temple. It was said to be a compound of the Hebrew words tel (hill) and piyot (mouths), as in "the hill to which all mouths turn in prayer."

In the 1920s, the Bauhaus architect Richard Kaufmann presented the British Mandate authorities with a plan for Talpiot, which he designed as a garden suburb. The plan included a large building that he envisioned as a future parliament, redesignated as an art gallery to appease the doubters. The first residents were clerical and office personnel. Living in the neighborhood required membership in a mutual society to which dues were paid. Despite a British Mandate regulation stating that all buildings in Jerusalem must be use Jerusalem stone, developers in Talpiot were permitted to use stucco-covered concrete due to the high demand for housing.

The early settlers were evacuated from Talpiot in the wake of the 1929 Hebron massacre, but later returned. When the British left Jerusalem in May 1948, a Haganah military brigade launched Operation Kilshon to seize security zones previously occupied by the British and defend Jerusalem against attack by the Arab Legion. The British army camp in Talpiot, known as Mahane Allenby, was one of the strategic sites captured in this operation.

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