Jerusalem – Ancient Water Tunnel Excavated in Jerusalem

Jerusalem – Archaeologists say they have finished clearing a 2,000-year-old tunnel running under the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.

The Israel Antiquities Authority believes the tunnel served to drain rainwater near the Second Temple, the center of Jewish faith destroyed in A.D. 70.

It runs near — but not underneath — the sacred and politically explosive enclosure known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, home to the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Archaeology and politics in Jerusalem are hopelessly entangled, and there was criticism of the new excavation Tuesday.

The tunnel runs from inside the Old City to the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, where a settler group both funds archaeological digs and moves in Jewish families, angering Palestinians.