A salvage excavation near the Temple Mount has unearthed a unique mikveh ritual bath dating to the Second Temple period.
The mikveh is located on top of a cliff in the “Upper City,” a phrase coined by historian Josephus Flavius to describe the area of Herod’s City that housed Jerusalem’s elites in what is now the Jewish Quarter.
It was found within a private villa, built into the bedrock and featuring a vaulted ceiling with fine masonry typical of the Herodian period.
A plastered water cistern, uncovered near the same villa, had been in use until the destruction of the Second Temple by Rome in 70 CE. It held the remains of nearly 40 cooking pots, some still intact.
These excavations began in February 2021 to provide disabled access between Jerusalem’s Old City and the Western Wall.
