Jerusalem Water Channel
The Jerusalem Water Channel is a central drainage channel of Second Temple Jerusalem, now an archaeological site in Jerusalem. Purpose It is a large drainage tunnel or sewer that runs down the Tyropoeon Valley and once drained runoff and waste water from the city of Jerusalem. Date The excavators, Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron, date it to the later part of the Second Temple period. According to Leen Ritmeyer, the drain is mainly of Hasmonean age, with the exception of a bypass section near the southeast corner of the Temple Mount, which is Herodian. Description The channel is about a kilometer in length. The walls of the channel are made of heavy slabs of stone. Manholes with round, stone manhole covers are spaced along the length of the channel. Some of the original plaster is intact. Pottery and coins found in the water channel confirm its date. Josephus's text confirmed The water channel has been identified as the conduit described in Josephus Flavius' The Jewish War. According to Josephus, in the year 70 CE thousands of Jerusalemites took refuge from the Roman sacking of Jerusalem inside this water channel. Archaeologists attribute ash on the walls of the channel to fires