Jerusalem's mystery monumental moat

ANCIENT MONUMENTAL ENGINEERING: Archaeologists Bewildered by Monumental Moat That Split Biblical Jerusalem in Two. Israeli archaeologists have found a huge ditch carved into the rock that may have split ancient Jerusalem in two 3,000 years ago, with the elites on one side and the rest on the other. Why is another question (Ariel David, Haaretz).

On the eastern edge of the Givati dig, the archaeologists recently removed multiple layers of Byzantine, Roman and Hellenistic remains to reach bedrock, but they found that around nine meters lower than expected. They soon realized they were standing in a huge ditch marked by two clearly rock-cut cliffs to the north and south, report Prof. Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University, Dr. Yiftah Shalev of the Israel Antiquities Authority and colleagues.

The ditch, at the bottom of which the strange channel installations were found, is massive. It measures around 30 meters wide: that's more or less enough to fit a 10-storey building lying on its side.

As I've said before, the Givati excavation is the dig that keeps on giving.

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