Monumental Construction and Water Management at the Foot of the Temple Mount, Western Wall Tunnels Excavations, Jerusalem

The 2018–2020 excavations in the Western Wall Tunnels yielded the remains of a massive wall, identified as a cast dam across the confluence of the Tyropoeon and Transversal Valleys. Incorporated into the wall’s core were water channels and vaulted tunnels that served to regulate water flow and drainage. Based on stratigraphic considerations, radiocarbon dating and small finds, the dam wall dated to the latter half of the first century BCE, the days of King Herod. In the first half of the first century CE, a magnificent stone-paved triclinium building, with a central fountain flanked by two triclinia halls, was built atop the dam wall, which was cut down and lowered for this purpose. One of the dam-wall channels was modified to drain the fountain water. Around the time of the First Jewish Revolt, a large miqweh was installed in the triclinium building. The excavations also provided evidence of the use of the Great Causeway spaces in the Late Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic periods.