The leper's wall

The wall in the (real) Old City of Jerusalem, which is south of the mediaeval square, is radiocarbon-dated "First-Temple". It has been assumed from Hezeqiah. Hezeqiah was Jerusalem's most celebrated builder of the post-Rehoboam Kingdom; Hezeqiah was he who drilled the cistern and repelled Sennacherib (with Nubian help). Problem: radiocarbon is a highly blunt instrument.

The dendrochronology is in - it was rebuilt after Amos' quake. So Hezeqiah's predecessor(s) had built it already. The Daily Mail names the rebuilder: Uzziah. Let's look into Uzziah's reign and legacy.

The paraleipomenic Chronicles paint Uzziah as a near-ideal... until he crossed the Sanctum in the Temple. The Chronicler makes much of Uzziah's (supposed) military might. Gluska and Lipshits read the Chronicler as painting Uzziah in Nehemiah's image. (The Book of Nehemiah is not directly in what we found at Qumran, but the Temple Scroll cites it and its version of Ezra is ours.)

"Azariah", as Uzziah is also called, was anointed king as a sixteen-year-old subservient to mighty Jeroboam II to the north. On Jeroboam's death, Uzziah was able to branch out more on his own, building - per Reigns, not just Chronicles - the Red Sea port Eilat. He did at least maintain good economic ties with the north. Around 750 BC Uzziah had to rule through his son Jotham; 4 Reigns 15:35 names Jotham as building the "higher gate" of the Temple (bet-YHWH).

Notable is that Reigns also notes "Azariah" (Uzziah) as entering the Temple, contracting leprosy in the process. Graham Hancock famously saw this event as a witness to the Ark.

I suspect that Uzziah didn't build much monumental nor protective in Jerusalem as long as Jeroboam II was issuing policy. Uzziah could, however, rebuild; and Uzziah and Jotham together could have collaborated on projects. One project was to unite the Temple with the Throne; I suspect Uzziah's queen Jerusha bint Zadok was in fact a Zadokite. Clearly that didn't work, but the Temple did get some improvements as byproduct.