It seems remarkable that in a city like Jerusalem, which has been a central focus of archaeologists for a long time, major finds are still being made. The most recent: two weeks ago, Israeli archaeologists discovered a massive tunnel, believed to be around a half mile long and as much as ten feet high. The tunnel was built for drainage, but has been long sought in part because of its historical role as described by Josephus:
[W]hat makes the channel doubly significant is its role as an escape hatch for Jews desperate to flee the conquering Romans, the dig’s directors said.
As the [Second] [T]emple was being destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D., numerous people took shelter in the drainage channel and lived inside it until they fled Jerusalem through its southern end, the historian Josephus Flavius wrote in “The War of the Jews.”
Pottery shards, vessels and coins from the First Century have been found inside the tunnel. Here is the tunnel:
And some artifacts from the tunnel:
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