Endnote 5 – The Riches of Ketef Hinnom

This named church is the first on a list of 35 churches beginning in the western part of the city. Until our discovery of this hitherto unknown church at Ketef Hinnom, St. George’s Church was thought to be located far west of the city. That identification should now be reconsidered since the site of Ketef Hinnom is a much more suitable location for this church. Moreover the name of St. George, to whom the church was dedicated, is mentioned in one of the Greek inscriptions of the Byzantine period incised on the façades of burial caves in the nearby Hinnom Valley. The Byzantine Period church we uncovered should therefore be identified with the “Church of St. George outside the walls” mentioned by Thomas (“the undertaker”), who described the city’s building and victims following the Persian conquest of 614.