A 2000-year old underground complex was recently discovered near the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The three-room complex was unearthed beneath a Byzantine/Umayyad mosaic floor in the “Beit Strauss” complex. In the Second Temple-era, the site was the public civic center of Jerusalem next to the “big bridge” that connected the upper city to the Temple. It had been hand-chiseled out of bedrock prior to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Clay cooking pots, oil lamp cores, a stone mug, and a qalal – a large stone basin for holding water were all discovered within the structure and helped with its dating. The structure itself has three rooms that occupy different floors and were connected with stairs. Two of the rooms measured 2.5m x 2.5m, while the third measured 2.5m x 4m. Archaeologists are unsure of the exact purpose of the complex, but are continuing their excavations.
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