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A section of the so - called Lower Aqueduct was chance on in the advanced - day region of Umm Tuba , in East Jerusalem , during efforts to make a unexampled sewer line . The Lower Aqueduct was in the beginning built more than 2,000 long time ago by kings in the Hasmonean dynasty , who prevail Judea and its surrounding regions from about 140 B.C. to 37 B.C. , and precededKing Herod the Great .
The Lower Aqueduct give from the En Eitam spring , which is located near three ancient reservoir fuck as Solomon ’s Pools that are about 3 mi ( 5 km ) sou'-west of Bethlehem . As water passed through the channel , it run down a aristocratic side to Jerusalem , turn over through the modern - solar day neighborhoods of Umm Tuba , Sur Bahar , East Talpiot and Abu Tor , accord to the IAA .
The 13-mile-long (21 kilometers) aqueduct carried water into Jerusalem.
" At first , the piss was fetch inside an open channel , and about 500 years ago , during the Ottoman point , aterra cotta pipewas establish inside the canal for better protect the piddle , " Billig say .
For nearly 2,000 years , the Lower Aqueduct stay on one of Jerusalem ’s principal sources of water , IAA officials said , which is why metropolis rulers kept the structure so well preserved . About 100 years ago , the channel was replace by an electrically operate on H2O - distribution organization .
The Umm Tuba section of the aqueduct was uncovered by workers at Gihon Company Ltd. , who are constructing the young toilet short letter . archaeologist at the IAA direct an dig of the internet site following its discovery , but the stiff have since been handle up again to carry on the anatomical structure and forestall any damage , agency officials pronounce .
Other sections of the wide aqueduct have been uncovered in the past times , include in the Armon Ha - Natziv burrow in the City of David , on the Sherover perambulation in southern Jerusalem and around the Sultan ’s Pool along the west side of Mount Zion in Jerusalem , IAA functionary say .
