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Archaeologists have discovered the end of a monolithic fosse that once fortify the acropolis area where royalty know in Jerusalem thou of twelvemonth ago .
For the past 150 years , researchers have search tirelessly for the structure , which divided the city in two . archeologist remain unsure of when the large expanse — which measures roughly 30 feet ( 9 time ) deep , 98 fundament ( 30 m ) across-the-board and 230 foot ( 70 m ) long — was build . However , they do know that it was in use of goods and services approximately 3,000 years ago , when the urban center served as the uppercase of theKingdom of Judah , according to the statement .
Looking upward from the bottom of the moat, which was built into a natural rock bed.
" During those years , the moat separated the southerly residential part of the metropolis from the ruling acropolis in the north [ and ] the upper metropolis where the castle and the tabernacle were located,“Yuval GadotandYiftah Shalev , the dig ’s executive theater director , say in the assertion .
" Such meaning construction plans and quarrying in Jerusalem are normally dated to the Middle Bronze Age — about 3,800 years ago ( the beginning of the second millennium B.C. ) , " Shalev contribute . " If the fosse was cut during this period , then it was intended to protect the city from the northward — the only weak point of the City of David slope . “The finding is tie to a biblical book of facts about how ancient rulers also sample to shape the sphere ’s topography . In the first Book of power ( 11:27 ) , King Solomon is enunciate to have build a expression know as " Millo . " The passage reads , " … Solomon build up up the ' Millo ' and conclude up the rupture in the rampart of the City of David his beginner , " according to the statement .
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It would have taken a bombastic exploit of engineering to construct such a giant barrier , since the labor would have involve " blanket quarrying " that would have " reshape[d ] the topography " of naturally formed rock walls , according to the statement .
In the 1960s , British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon came nigh to finding the moat , which is now located near a parking lot in Jerusalem Walls National Park . Initially , she think the bodily structure was a " natural valley , " but in fact , it was a " prolongation of the fosse . "
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" She was excavating in a belittled and narrow expanse and did n’t read what on the button this deep [ was used for ] , " Gadot enjoin in a picture about the recent find . " Now we can take [ the ] two dig together and realize that there is a trench that set out here and ends 70 m [ 230 feet ] away from us . "
The resolution of the excavation were presented at the City of David ’s Jerusalem Studies Experience group discussion in July , according to the statement .
" When you stand at the bottom of this giant excavation , circumvent by enormous hand-hewn walls , it is insufferable not to be satisfy with wonder and taste for those ancient people who , about 3,800 long time ago , literally moved mountains and hills,“Eli Escusido , director - superior general of the IAA , say in the statement .
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