Portions of Jerusalem's 450-year-old Old City wall may start crumbling in two years or less, but the Antiquities Authority has no way of knowing when this will happen, according to spokesman Ya'acov Sheffer, because there is no monitoring system in place.

Sheffer said the Authority has put together a team of experts to conduct a badly needed comprehensive survey of the wall, but the survey has not yet begun because of a dispute over who will fund the project. He added that the Authority might have to turn to Jews from outside Israel to ask for the $40,000 to cover the project.

Jerusalem Municipality spokesman, Haggai Elias, said that the city would be willing to enter into negotiations over partial funding.

The wall was built by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent between 1537 and 1541.

(By Etgar Lefkovits, The Jerusalem Post:
http://www.bridgesforpeace.com/publications/news/Article-1.html)