Posted on 01/14/2007 6:40:55 PM PST by Esther Ruth
Temple Aqueduct and Ritual Bath Excavated Opposite Temple Mount
Monday, January 15, 2007 / 25 Tevet 5767
Excavations being conducted opposite the Western Wall Plaza have uncovered an aqueduct that brought water to the Holy Temple, as well as a ritual bath from that period.
The never-before-excavated area is situated behind the Western Wall police station, adjacent to the plaza where millions of worshipers and tourists come each year to visit the Western Wall and Temple Mount.
The new archaeological find uncovers a missing link in the ancient water system, known as the "Lower Aqueduct" which channeled water from Solomon’s Pools near Bethlehem (located miles south of Jerusalem) directly to the national focal point of Jewish worship - the Temple Mount.
Solomon’s pools, situated just north of the modern Jewish town of Efrat, covers an area of about 7 acres and are capable of containing three million gallons of water. A lengthy aqueduct conveyed the water from the lowest pool through Bethlehem, across the Gihon valley, along the western slope of the Tyropoeon valley, and into the cisterns underneath the Temple Mount. Today, the water from the pools reaches only Bethlehem due to the destruction of the aqueducts.
Current plans for the partition wall will leave Solomon’s Pools outside the area of Jewish sovereignty.
The plastered hewn-stone mikva (ritual bath) unearthed at the excavation is from the Second Temple period. It was originally situated in the foundation level of a private home during the time of the Second Temple. The ritual bath was damaged at a later date when the bedrock cliff opposite it was hewn into a vertical wall that rose up to a maximum height of about thirty feet.
The most extensive remains are those of a Roman-Byzantine colonnaded street – the Eastern Cardo. Included in that area is a covered stoa, a row of shops and several artifacts.
The street appears on a 6th century map known as the Medaba Map and is known as the Eastern Cardo or the Valley Cardo. The lavish colonnaded street began at the Damascus Gate in the north and led south, running the length of the channel in the Tyropoeon Valley. Sections of this street were revealed in the past in the northern part of the Old City, at a depth of about four meters (12 feet) below the pavement. The full eleven-meter (33 foot) width of the original road was exposed in the present excavation for the first time.
“The street was paved with large flagstones that were set in place diagonally, in the customary method of the Roman world, which was probably meant to prevent wagons from slipping,” Shlomit Wexler-Bdolah, the director of the excavations explained. She added that a drainage system was installed below the flagstones.
To the west of the street was a covered stoa that was six meters wide, and beyond it was a row of shops set inside cells whose walls were hewn out of the bedrock cliff. A large base of a magnificent corner column has just been exposed in the eastern side of the street and may be part of a building that stood there, or an intersection with an entrance to the road that runs to the east.
The Antiquities Authority is carrying out the excavations of the 80 by 200 foot area west of the Western Wall at the request of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. The area will soon be the site of the Western Wall Heritage Center.
But every Arab knows the Jews were never located anywhere in Jerusalem.
There was something on the roads and aqueducts in "the life of Brian".
Why does Olmert even consider dividing Judea, a part to ARABS?
Just to the left of this site (and slightly west, is a place called the Burnt House, which is an excavated High Priests house that was destroyed in 70 A.D. And just to the south of that site is the Wahl Museum, that contains the excavation of 4 homes of the wealthy that belong to the Priesthood, perhaps Caiphas House. All destroyed by the Romans..These excavations actually began about 30 years ago. The place under the police station was opened about a year ago. Exciting developments.
Do Moslems ever bathe. I cant see them putting all that work into somewhere to bathe.
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According to the Arabs there were no Jews in Palestine until 1948 when they suddenly showed up.
Current plans for the partition wall will leave Solomon’s Pools outside the area of Jewish sovereignty.
Dear Lord, look what they have done to the ancient Jewish tombs in Palestinian control already. They're going to have a great time destroying Solomon's Pools for scrap building material.
Am I supposed to feel bad for the children of Amelek, and the lies of his children?
And, we all know there wasn't a King Solomon and that I'll never find Ofir.
The most horrible thing is that Adolph Hitler had it right in terms of modern propaganda; that is, if you're going to tell a lie, make it a BIG one and keep on repeating it. The masses will eventually believe it.
Hitler must be in hell, but his evil advice still works for evil people.
I always thought that the Monty Python troupe was hilarious, in every endeavor.
Still, I have never seen "Life of Brian" and I never shall.
I know that i am missing out on a few laughs, but that shit is over the line as far as I am concerned.
Blessed are the cheesemakers
A bath? That right there gives lie to the notion that it's Muslim construct. They don't have much acquaintance with baths, individually or collectively.
Are we the Peoples' Judean Front or the Peoples Front of Judea?
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