Cave Researchers Explore Stream-Filled Cavern at Entrance to Jerusalem

Science Daily ^ | 06-19-2011 | Staff

[Red Badger]

Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers have conducted an initial survey of what appears to be an important, ancient water source in a cave that was been discovered during excavation work for a new train station being constructed at the entrance to Jerusalem.

The work was done by members of the Cave Research Unit of the university, headed by Prof. Amos Frumkin of the Department of Geography. The cave was exposed near the base of a deep service shaft that was dug for the train tunnel leading into the new station, located opposite the main bus station in Jerusalem. The full length of the cave is as yet unexplored.

The cave is narrow and a few dozen meters high, forming an underground canyon. It contains an underground stream, flowing in a southeasterly direction. It is a type of karstic cave, which refers to an area of limestone in which dissolution has produced sinkholes, underground streams and caverns. Karstic caves are common mainly where the climate is wetter, such as Slovenia.

The length of the cave is believed to extend for several hundred meters, at least, though its true length will only be known after subsequent explorations. At a distance of some 200 meters from the service shaft, the Hebrew University cave explorers found a series of small waterfalls. Testing of the water in the cave, it is believed, can yield valuable information about potential pollution of the underground water supply in the Jerusalem area.

"This cave is the largest and most impressive of its type that has yet been found in Israel," said Frumkin. He pointed out that the cave is situated in an area about which there is uncertainty regarding the direction of the flow of water in the mountain aquifer,...

[Red Badger]

View from the newly discovered cave at the entrance to Jerusalem. (Credit: Image courtesy of Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Zechariah 14

New International Version (NIV)

The LORD Comes and Reigns 1 A day of the LORD is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.

2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. 3 Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. 5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake[a] in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

6 On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness. 7 It will be a unique day—a day known only to the LORD—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light.

8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.

9 The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.

10 The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up high from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses, and will remain in its place. 11 It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure.

[Red Badger]

GGG Ping!.............

[Sacajaweau]

Oh my!!

[silverleaf]

very impressive

and just being discovered?

[MrB]

Siloam?

[JoyjoyfromNJ]

For possible ping. The picture shows a much larger cave then I expected. Haven’t read the article yet but the walls look smooth enough for it to have been a cistern?? Or is the gray above a tarp/covering? Duh, I’m off to read the article.

[Red Badger]

No, they know where that was..............

[Red Badger]

There have been many earthquakes here over the centuries. It was probably buried and forgotten about...................

[Red Badger]

Ping!...........

[cc2k]

wrote:

The picture shows a much larger cave then I expected. Haven’t read the article yet but the walls look smooth enough for it to have been a cistern?? Or is the gray above a tarp/covering? Duh, I’m off to read the article.

The caption on the picture says "View from the newly discovered cave." So I'm guessing that is looking out of the cave into the construction of the new tunnel. That would mean the actual cave is behind the camera when the picture was taken. Hard to say what the actual cave looks like.

If I took a picture that I caption, "View from my window," you have no idea what the inside of my house looks like.

[MrB]

I heard something recently about an expedition where a diver went up the underground spring that fed the pool,
and he ended up at the headwaters under the dome of the rock (by GPS coords).

Have you heard of that expedition?

[Sacajaweau]

Interesting....From this view, straight walls with ounded ceilings, ??? it almost looks like an observatory.

[Red Badger]

No, but it is interesting.
The Mount of Olives will be split according to Zechariah, and a permanent stream will flow out from this new split going both east to the Dead Sea via the Jordan River and west to the Med................

[hoagy62]

The rounded, smooth walls you see are from the bore hole for the tunnel the article mentioned. When they were boring down, that’s when they discovered the cave.

When you’re building a tunnel (unless you’re doing it underwater, like the Chunnel) and you want to put a station along the way, you’ll drill a bore hole or two first. They did that with the Light Rail station in Seattle at Beacon Hill and are doing that now with the new station they’re building near Husky Stadium.

[JoyjoyfromNJ]

Thank you both for your explanations. I concur that the picture appears to be the bore hole, not the cave itself. Not much more info at the link about the cave — but lots of different articles on the sidebar with connections to Israel, including several on leprosy in history and today. Sorry for the digression but that’s what I enjoy about the internet.

[JimRed]

Wasn’t there a fiction/history book written about that water? The Source, maybe? It sure sounds familiar.

[BelegStrongbow]

The Source (Michener) is about a fictional town in Galilee, though one chapter does discuss Hezekiah’s Well in Jerusalem (the alleged architect of the Well is supposed to be from the fictional town).

[Red Badger]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Source_%28novel%29

[Fire_on_High]

BFL.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................