Directly south of Jerusalem’s ancient Temple Mount, between the Ophel and the City of David, archaeologists unearthed a new mystery: a series of strange channels with smoothed inner surfaces. There are two separate installations about 30 feet apart: a northern group of nine channels and a southern group of five channels. Both groups fell out of use in the late ninth century BCE, during the reigns of the Judahite kings Joash and Amaziah. The function of the channels, however, continues to mystify archaeologists. Yuval Gadot and Yiftah Shalev, co-directors of the Givati Parking Lot excavation where they were found, interpret […]