Beneath Jerusalem, a River Runs Deep

August 1, 2011

He and his team were called upon by Israel Railways after its engineers chanced upon the cave while excavating an 80-meter [260-foot] shaft close to the city’s main convention center and central bus station that is being drilled for a huge, underground station that will serve the high-speed Jerusalem–Tel Aviv railway.

“When they reached the depth of 75 meters [246 feet], they cut into this cave accidentally. The water started flowing into this shaft…We were the first humans ever to set foot inside this cave. However, it wasn’t very easy. It meant crawling in mud and some rappelling on ropes was required,” Frumkin said. “It was beautiful. One canyon was over 200 meters [656 feet] long, and we never reached its end.”

The cave appears to have developed after water seeped in from the surface and dissolved the underlying limestone. While other major caves have been discovered in Israel, this was the only one with running water. “This is the longest one with an active stream flowing through it. All the other stalactite caves in Israel are without any stream of water today…The study of the cave can help us understand the precise mechanism by which water flows through the aquifer in the Jerusalem area,” Frumkin said.

“The train station will be built, but I believe that we can also preserve the cave by building some doorway to seal the cave but to allow entry to anyone who needs to get into it.”

Though this is not an archaeological find, we thought this was an astounding underground discovery worth reporting.

Source: Excerpts of an article by Arieh O’Sullivan, The Media Line