The majesty of Jerusalem’s temple mount has awed the world for thousands of years. This is where solomon built his temple and this is where the dome of the rock was built. According to moslem tradition, mohammed ascended to heaven from this sacred site.

But hidden away from the gaze of the curious exists a dark mysterious world of caves and tunnels, whose secrets are only now being revealed. Many of these tunnels go back to second temple times, perhaps even earlier.

Behind the western wall lies the temple mount which is actually hollow. When herod rebuilt the second temple, it was on top of a hill. In filling in the surrounding slopes, he created a large platform. The tunnels are under the vaults and retaining walls of the temple platform. Over the years they have served a multitude of purposes and it is not an exaggeration to say that the tunnels are like a time machine to Jerusalem’s history.

Anyone living in Jerusalem in those times knew about these tunnels underneath the city. In fact, we can speak about subterranian Jerusalem; in doing so we learn a lot about the defense and water systems of this ancient city.

History and myth permeate these black caverns and whispers of the bible echo on these hollows deep under the earth. Some believe that these tunnels lead to glistening diamonds and buried gold - the fabled temple treasures of king solomon from three thousand years ago. Jerusalem legends tell of genies and ghosts that abide here, bringing mischief and help to the denizens of the world above. In the searing prose of the bible we hear of the dramatic adventures and deperate escapes that took place in these shadows as well as feats of amazing engineering skills. Did king david really conquer through these tunnels? And did king tzedekiah really escape the babylonians in this manner?

Biblical archaeology is a comparatively modern pursuit, whose roots only go back to the last century when a british team of engineers came to Jerusalem to survey and explore the temple mount and its surroundings. In 1867, captain charles warren came to the spring, went into the water where it enters into a tunnel, and looked into the dark through a side opening. Extremely excited his team penetrated blocked caverns, traversed dark tunnels and water sources, and in the process re-discovered the ancient ruins that had been hidden for centuries. These early soldier-explorers under warren’s command were the forerunners of modern-day archeologists. The places first explored by warren were the natural water sources just south of the temple area.

What warren found was a man-made underground water system, carved out of the stone. It began at an entrance above and led to the shaft he ascended. It seemed to be a concealed pathway that had been created in such a way that the people could draw water without being seen by an external enemy. This was vital in time of war. Undetected, Jerusalemites could still freely use their water source, the gihon spring, which was the only spring in the whole Jerusalem area.

The water flows a short distance from the spring itself. This is the reason why people in ancient times, much earlier than the israelites, chose this hill as the place where they wanted to settle.

Jerusalem was first built around 5,000 years ago in the early bronze age. Later it was fortified by the canaannites. Even in abraham’s time, Jerusalem was a noted city. In fact, in genesis, chapter 14, we read how the patriarch was blessed by melchizedek, the king of salem, the ancient name for Jerusalem.

But the city isn’t mentioned again until many chapters and several hundred years later in the second book of samuel when king david approached with his army to attack jebusite Jerusalem. Then scripture tells us, “…and david said on that day whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the jebusites, that are hated of david’s soul, he shall be chief and captain.” A few verses later we learn that, “…david dwelt in the fort and called it the city of david”.

But how did david conquer the city? The word “gutter” in hebrew “tzinor” is the key. Biblical scholars and archeologists have various theories as to what the word means. It is possible that “tzinor” is indeed the water channel. We know that cities were conquered by sending in crack troops through the water channel to force an entrance into the city.

Does the word “tzinor” really indicate the Jerusalem water channel? If so, this wouldn’t be the first time in antiquity that sneak attacks were made through a waterway. Warren’s discovery of the shaft appeared to settle the mystery of the word “tzinor.” But while many biblical scholars agree that this must have been the place where david’s soldiers “went up the gutter” and conquered the city, others still have their doubts.

Dr. Ronny reich, an archeologist, continued to dig and found another tunnel older than warren’s shaft. It leads to a fortified water pool. Dr reich believes that this is the original entrance into the pool where the canaanite inhabitants of Jerusalem were protected by an underground passage that allowed them to draw water during times of seige. This recent discovery has opened a new debate among scholars about the origin of Jerusalem’s water system.

The new fortification found on the lower part of the city of david is a totally new discovery and my colleagues, the archeologists from all over the world, were as surprised as we were. This now gives a totally new shape to Jerusalem’s history and a beter appreciation of the magnitude and abilities of the people living here 3,800 years ago.

This find made headlines in the news media and stunned the academic community. At one go, it shattered the warren shaft theory for “tzinor.” It also ignited a passionate debate among scholars on other issues.

Some claimed that the bible was clearly wrong since the fortification of Jerusalem, traditionally attributed to king david, was disproved by archeologists who had found huge towers dating back to the canaanite Jerusalem of abraham’s time. Perhaps some of these archeologists should relearn the bible.

These are different components of a system of historical thought and this is totally new. When you bring together several unrelated components, you can get something entirely unexpected.

There is a hot dispute about this, arguing that the finds actually confirm rather than contradict what the bible tells us.

All archeological finds help us to better understand antiquity and the world of the bible so that what we are now finding is an archeological illumination of what was going on in the period attributed to abraham.

The tunnels have also attracted treasure hunters. In 1910, an englishman, captain montagu parker, following a swedish mystic’s theory, dug here hoping to find the ark and the treasures of solomon’s temple. After bribing the moslem guards, he began hunting for ways to enter the temple mount from one of the underground tunnels. His search began close to warrens shaft, alongside dr. Reich’s modern discovery. There was hell to pay when moslems found parker digging around the mosque area at night. The cry went out, “the infidels are here. Islam is being violated.” As riots ensued, parker fled the holyland, barely escaping with his life however his abandoned artefacts have remained as witnesses.

Montique parker made a shaft here but did not care to reach down to the ground, so he did not find the things we have found; however it is still possible to see the buckets he left us.

The tunnel leading off from the gihon spring is possibly the most famous old city tunnel of all and is replete with more mysteries than most of the others.

This is where hezekiah’s tunnel actually starts. In my opinion, it is still one of the great construction, and engineering enigmas of the ancient world.

In 701 bce, king hezekiah prepared the tunnel as a defense against an invading force led by the assyrian general sencherib who was laying siege to the city.

In the book of chronicles we read how hezekiah stopped up the single source of water in the area, the gihon spring.

King hezekiah’s goal was two-fold: not only would he cut off the water supply to the invading army, but he would also provide an abundance of water for the residents of Jerusalem at the same time.

This long and winding tunnel brought the water into the city, but now everything is protected and nobody has to use any hidden underground ways to bring in a single bucket of water.

In the end, hezekiah was victorious. Jerusalem withstood the vicious siege and a defeated sencherib left with his assyrian army in disgrace. But the enigma still remains because the bible doesn’t tell us how the tunnel was built, or how it was completed so quickly.

The hezekiah’s tunnel that you see is very narrow. Its width is only sixty centimeters wide, that is, two feet. That’s all it is and there’s only one place for a single worker with an ax to cut into the rock. The tunnel was cut in such a way that it would lead the water underground to the pool of siloam inside the city.

An inscription, found at the tunnel’s exit in the late 1800s provides a partial answer to some of the queries. Written in ancient hebrew it states: “…the tunneling was completed:..while the hewers wielded the ax, each man toward his fellow…there was heard a man’s voice calling to his fellow...the hewers hacked each toward the other, ax against ax two cutters in the rock started to cut, one from here, and his colleague did it from the other side. They could, of course, make two mistakes. First of all, not to meet, and then as the joke goes we would have had two tunnels for the same price or they could also make a mistake by crossing one above the other which again did not happen because they finally met.

Theories vary as to how the ancients dug such a sophisticated tunnel. Some say that the cutters followed a major fissure in the hard stone. But nobody yet knows the truth. What is probably more important to us is that here, before our eyes, stands a bible story clearly substantiated by a two thousand year old archeological proof.

The hezekiah tablet is, of course, unique for in most cases we have found these tunnels, but with absolutely no ability to identify who used them, their purpose or when were they built.

The most well known of these anonymous diggings are the hasmonean tunnels located along the outside perimeter of the temple mount.

These tunnels were also explored in the last century by warren. To his amazement he found cavernous passages with walls taller than any cave he had yet explored. What were they used for and who built such high walls?

One theory suggests that they were natural caverns since it seemed unlikely that anyone would build such high walls for carrying water. The answer still escapes archeologists.

This staggering 120 meters long tunnel is cut out of bedrock but is blocked by the walls of the temple mount built by king herod around 20 bce. Its true length is unknown and its purpose is still an enigma.

As if that were not enough, another series of tunnels, some dating back nearly three thousand years, lie to the south of the temple mount.

This one was created by the jewish stone cutters who cut through the stone, and reached this level, and perhaps even a bit lower when the tunnel passageway was created on both sides. Afterwards, flagestones were put above the tunnel, so that one could walk above it and even protected the tunnel from intruding eyes.

If we accept that these tunnels date from biblical times, what might have been their purpose?

Standing at the southern wall of the temple mount in front of one of the most famous tunnels of underg