Archaeologists discover quarry used for stones for Herod's temple

[G-Manicus]

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Israeli archaeologists said they have discovered a quarry that provided King Herod with the giant stones he used in the renovation of the biblical Second Temple compound -- solving a mystery that has troubled scholars for centuries and offering insight into the construction process of the holiest site in Judaism.

 

The source of the huge stones was discovered on the site of a proposed religious school in a Jerusalem suburb. It is believed to be in one of the areas that Prime Minister Olmert intends to hand over to the Palestinian Authority.

 

"This is the first time stones which were used to build the Temple Mount walls were found," said Yuval Baruch, an archaeologist with the Israeli Antiquities Authority involved in the dig told the Associated Press. Quarries mined for the massive stones, each weighing more than 20 tons, eluded researchers until now, he said Sunday.

 

Baruch called the ancient quarry a sensational discovery, saying, "There is no other structure in the whole east that was built in ancient times with such large stones used for its construction other than the Second Temple."

 

Coins and pottery found in the quarry confirm that the stones were used during the period of Herod's expansion of the Temple Mount in 19 B.C, Baruch said.

 

Researchers said the strongest piece of evidence was found wedged into one of the massive cuts in the white limestone ? an iron stake used to split the stone. The tool was apparently improperly used, accidentally lodged in the stone and forgotten.

 

"It stayed here for 2,000 years for us to find because a worker didn't know what to do with it," said archaeologist Ehud Nesher, also of the Antiquities Authority, according to the AP report.

 

The Second Temple was leveled by Roman conquerors in A.D. 70. The Western Wall, the holiest prayer site for Jews, is the best known surviving remnant. The Palestinian Authority denies the existence of the Temple or any Jewish connection to the area.