Archaeologists have discovered the oldest Prague walls so far

Prague - Archaeologists have discovered remnants of the oldest Prague city walls on Malostranské Square, writes today's Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD). The timber-and-clay fortification from the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries could have been as much as six meters high and was part of one of the main entrance gates to the city.
    "Although we have previously found fragments of the walls from this period in another location, this current find in the cellars of the Academy of Performing Arts (AMU) elevates our understanding of the appearance of the fortifications of Prague at that time to a completely new and extraordinary level," said archaeologist Jarmila Čiháková to the newspaper.
    The new discovery definitively confirms the lines of the early medieval Prague city walls, which apparently stretched from areas near the Vltava River, where Charles Bridge is located today, along the southern edge of Malostranské Square towards today's Petřín Hospital, writes MfD.
    The relief of the Prague terrain in the 10th century was five meters lower. The pavement of Malostranské Square is therefore today roughly at the level of the watchtowers of the recently discovered city wall gate.
    According to Čiháková, a few thousand people lived in early medieval Prague, with the city's center then located at Malostranské Square. Already in the 10th century, the Jewish merchant and diplomat Ibrahím ibn Jákub described Prague admiringly as a "city of stone and lime" in his travel report. He was also struck by the international activity at the Prague marketplace.
    The archaeologists documented the discovery of the fortifications and buried it in sand for its preservation, writes MfD.