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Underground Bathhouses Steam up Jerusalem

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Part of a medieval inn, or khan, built in 1337 by the Mamluks, now beneath the Old City near the Temple Mount. (Photo Credit: Ilan Ben Zion/Times of Israel staff)

Underneath the Cotton Market District of the Old City of Jerusalem, a vast series of age-old buildings uncovered by Israeli archaeologists is set to open to the public. Linked to the Western Wall by a labyrinth of former reservoirs, the greatest treasure being the newly refurbished inn from the 14th century.

The compound, named “Ahar Kotlenu” by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, contains a grand hall that is approximately 325 square meters (3,500 square feet), a cross-vaulted stone roof, held up by six pillars. The walls contain material stolen from the old ruins, like crusader capitals. It was once an inn for caravans or the storerooms and stables of the Mamluk inn, built in 1337.

The inn was part of the colossal reconstruction of Jerusalem, from the time of the Mamluks. “It was in a state of urban disarray by the 13th century” said historian Nimrod Luz.

Hervé Barbé, a research archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority who headed the dig, said “when we started excavating the fill was almost up to the ceiling, there was about a meter, we had to huddle in.” Six years since, the archaeologists dig up about 19 feet of dirt and garbage. An engineer was brought in to the assess the 600-year-old building and reinforce it to prevent collapse.

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation said that the entire compound – both the excavations and Ahar Kotlenu hall have not yet been determined for use. It’s not definite whether it will be used as a religious site or as a museum to showcase the Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Pagan history of the city. Lately the hall was being use to give a lecture before Yom Kippur.

Above the ruins of a Jewish Synagogue, a community of Hungarian Orthodox Jews built Ohel Yitzchak Shul in the 1870’s. In 1938 it was abandoned to Arab uprising in the British Mandate, and during Jordanian rule between 1948 and 1967 it fell to ruins.

In 2004 the IAA began excavating beneath the synagogue, digging deep into Jerusalem’s history.

Underneath the ruins of the synagogue, lies a traditional three-roomed bath house. The first chamber was used as a changing room. At some point during the Ottoman Period it was converted to a water reservoir, the windows were filled in a waterproofed, and the walls were plastered over. By the 20th century, the room was a neighborhood trash heap.

The other two chambers were preserved over the centuries. The channels and Pipes that brought water, now lay in fragments, but are still clearly visible in some places.

A meter deeper underneath the streets of the Old City, lays the late Roman Street, the second Cardo. This street remained in use until the time of the Crusades, when the whole area was converted to textile factories.

If one was to go father – 20 feet below today’s Old City streets, you would be at the top of stairs, a mere fragment of what has been exposed. Eastward it leads to the Cotton Merchants Market, what lays to the north and south have yet to be found out.

Exposed in 2007 by the IAA was the Herodian Level, which sits behind a vast wall whose purpose still remains a mystery. However, it may have been part of a Roman military encampment built after 70 CE and the destruction of the Second Temple.

As said by IAA archeologist Yuval Baruch, “It’s one of the (most) impressive, beautiful, and grand places found recently in Jerusalem.”

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