A water route beneath a future neighborhood
The excavation took place on land designated for development by the Israel Land Authority. According to the authority’s announcement, reported by The Jerusalem Post, the exposed section contains traces of several stages in the aqueduct’s long working life.
Excavation directors Dr. Benyamin Storchan and Gil Freid described the Lower Aqueduct as a major engineering project probably built under the Hasmonean kings. That attribution places its origins roughly 2,000 years ago; it should not be read as a newly established exact construction date.
The announcement concerns a recently excavated stretch of an already known water system. It does not mean that archaeologists have discovered the entire route for the first time.
A gentle slope made the system work
The aqueduct ran about 21 kilometers from Solomon’s Pools, south of Bethlehem, to Jerusalem. Spring water from the Gush Etzion area entered the wider supply system before reaching the city and the Temple Mount.
Its builders used the landscape to keep water moving by gravity. Along most of the route, the gradient fell by approximately one meter per kilometer, according to the excavation directors.
That modest descent required careful alignment across hills and exposed rock. Access points allowed workers to reach the channel to clear obstructions and perform maintenance, details that help explain how the system could remain useful across successive periods.
Repairs left their own archaeological record
Initially, water passed through a constructed channel coated with plaster. About 500 years ago, during the Ottoman period, ceramic pipes were installed inside the earlier aqueduct, the authority said.
The newly exposed section also includes pebbles pressed into exterior plaster while it was wet. These surviving construction details allow archaeologists to examine both the original channel and later interventions rather than treating the structure as a single unchanged monument.
Storchan and Freid said the aqueduct continued in intermittent use until approximately a century ago. That does not establish uninterrupted operation throughout its history, but it shows how later users adapted earlier infrastructure.
Preservation is part of the next stage
The Israel Antiquities Authority and Israel Land Authority plan to conserve the section and integrate it into the principal entrance of the proposed neighborhood. The announced approach links construction planning with protection of Jerusalem’s archaeological heritage.
Jerusalem district archaeologist Amit Re’em also described work with the municipality and other partners toward a continuous park following the aqueduct from southern Jerusalem toward the Old City. This remains a planning vision, not an announcement that such a park is already open.
The immediate next steps concern conservation and integration into development plans. No public opening date was supplied in the report, and the discovery does not establish when residents or visitors will be able to walk through the preserved section. The confirmed development on October 11 is the authority’s announcement of the excavated stretch and its proposed place in Jerusalem’s future landscape.
