http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2947458.ece
Revealed: How Jews fled the Roman army By Amy Teibel in Jerusalem Published: 10 September 2007 Israeli archaeologists have stumbled upon the site of one of the great dramatic scenes of the sacking of Jerusalem by the Romans 2,000 years ago - a subterranean drainage channel used by Jews to escape from the city's conquerors. The tunnel was dug beneath what would become the main road of Jerusalem in the days of the second biblical Temple, which the Romans destroyed AD70. The channel was buried beneath rubble during the sacking, and the parts which have been exposed since it was discovered two weeks ago are preserved intact, said Professor Ronny Reich, an archaeologist from the University of Haifa who led the dig. The walls - made from ashlar stones one meter deep - reach a height of 3m in some places and are covered by heavy stone slabs that were the main road's paving stones. Several manholes are visible and portions of the original plasterwork still remain. Pottery fragments and coins from the end of the Second Temple period were also discovered inside the channel, attesting to its age, Prof Reich said. The discovery of the drainage channel was momentous in itself, he added, and showed that the city's rulers cared for the welfare of their citizens by organising a system to drain the rainfall and prevent flooding. What makes the channel doubly significant is its role as an escape hatch for Jews who were desperate to flee the conquering Romans. "It was a place where people hid from the burning and destruction of Jerusalem," said Eli Shukrun, of Israel's Antiquities Authority. "According to Josephus, the historian who recorded the siege, occupation and destruction of Jerusalem, people found refuge in the drain until they managed to escape through the city's southern gate." Tens of thousands of people lived in Jerusalem at the time but it is not clear how many used the channel as an escape route, he added. The Second Temple was the centre of Jewish worship before the Romans conquered Jerusalem. The channel was found by accident two weeks ago, when excavators looking for Jerusalem's main road in the time of the Second Temple happened upon a small drainage channel. That led them to the massive tunnel that lies beneath that road. The archaeological team thinks it leads to the Kidron River, which empties into the Dead Sea.
