Did you ever read Michener? I loved his work “The Source”. He studied Yigael Yadin and Yadin came to our excavation at Qumran. I was the Project Geologist on several excavations at Qumran, which Yadin also excavated a few times. Jerusalem has been destroyed so many times that the subsequent building on top of the ruins have elevated the city by about 90-100’. I have toured the excavations (City of David) a few times, and it is an amazing job that has lasted for 40 years. I toured under the Temple Mount and have been able to examine the Solomon’s Stables under the El Asqa Mosque, which is on the South side of the Mount. Unfortunately, the Arabs have demolished the Stables and built an Underground Mosque (they say), but rumor has it they are storing weapons there. Under the Northest side of the Temple Mount, there ae extensive passages that have been excavated, but not open to the Public. There is a modern Synagogue that is constructed underground on the Western Wall that connects to the Kotel Katan, or little Wall to the North. In reality, there has been a few areas under the mount that need to be excavated.
I see that the name of the book is “The Source” as you said - and not “The Tell”. From the webs:
“Michener transports us back thousands of years to the Holy Land. Through the discoveries of modern archaeologists excavating the site of Tell Makor, Michener ...”
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Hey - I’m just surprised I remembered reading a book by him! I got about half-way through his book Centennial (Colorado history) and got distracted.
Those must have been very interesting projects working on those excavations!