Ahem.....Mohammad wasn't around in those days, was he?
Ya reckon Arafat reads Hotcopper?
Snooker ****************************************
Jun. 9, 2004 22:48 2nd Temple pool found By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
A pool that served as a main water reservoir for Jerusalem residents 2,000 years ago has been uncovered, the Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday.
The Pool of Siloam was uncovered last week by chance at the southern end of the City of David – in what today is Silwan – while the city was carrying out infrastructure work for a new sewage pipe.
Archeologist Eli Shukrun said that two millennia ago, Jewish residents would use the pool to gather water for their homes, as a meeting place, and also possibly as a mikve.
After lying untouched for 2,000 years, archeologists first uncovered one step, and then several more leading down to the pool, whose water came from the nearby Gihon spring.
"This find is of major importance to the archeological world," Antiquities Authority director Shuka Dorfman said Wednesday at a short ceremony at the site, where excavations are ongoing.
"This is our history and it is important that we know and remember that Jews lived here, and that this is our inheritance," Education Minister Limor Livnat said.
Livnat, whose ministry oversees the work of the Antiquities Authority, added that it was tremendously exciting to see history being repeatedly uncovered in the area.
For the time being, the site will not be open to the public.
"Both how and if the site will be opened will be determined in the future," Dorfman said.
