{"id":15113,"date":"2026-06-05T13:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T17:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=15113"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T17:52:09","slug":"archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah.html","title":{"rendered":"Archaeologists Discover Mysterious Tunnel Near Ancient Kingdom of Judah"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15116\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15116\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15116\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/06\/Mysterious-Tunnel_credit-Israel-Antiquities-Authority.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15116\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israel Antiquities Authority<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Archaeologists in Jerusalem have announced the discovery of a mysterious tunnel near the site of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced the find, saying it was still unclear what the tunnel\u2019s purpose was or how old it is. It measures 164 feet, 16 feet tall and roughly 10 feet wide. It was discovered during a salvage excavation for construction of a new neighborhood. \u201cAt the beginning, we thought it might just be a natural cave, but then we realized that it could not be the case. A huge investment of manpower and resources went into building this tunnel,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/archaeology\/article-896167\">said<\/a> excavation directors Dr. Sivan Mizrahi and Zinovi Matskevich. \u201cThe quarrying was executed meticulously. It is clear that whoever carved this tunnel invested tremendous effort, careful planning, and possessed the capabilities and resources necessary to achieve this goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/mysterious-ancient-tunnel-possibly-thousands-of-years-old-discovered-in-jerusalem\/\"><em>The Times of Israel<\/em><\/a>, Matskevich went into more detail about the tunnel. \u201cAt the beginning, we thought it might just be a natural cave, but then we realized that it could not be the case. A huge investment of manpower and resources went into building this tunnel.\u201d The tunnel\u2019s size prevented the team from completely excavating the space. \u201cEven for us, it would be a tremendous amount of work,\u201d said Matskevich. \u201cHowever, we dug some test pits and found that, in some places, the ceiling is almost five meters high, which is huge. So we started to ask ourselves, when was it done, and for what purpose?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Archaeologists wondered at first if the structure was a modern addition, but it was filled with debris and sewage that would have required hundreds, possibly thousands of years to accumulate. Some researchers believed the structure might have been used for quarrying to reach a soft layer of chalkstone. \u201cPossible evidence supporting this interpretation includes a shaft carved into the tunnel\u2019s ceiling, which may have been used for ventilation, as well as quarrying debris discovered on the tunnel floor \u2014 although this interpretation, too, remains uncertain,\u201d said the IAA. Matskevich estimated the tunnel could have been probably built during Roman times, about 2,000 years ago or more. \u201cArcheology in Jerusalem always provides surprises,\u201d Matskevich said. \u201cAt the same time, I have been working in Jerusalem for more than 20 years, and I have never found anything as surprising and fascinating as this tunnel, providing us with so many questions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archaeologists in Jerusalem have announced the discovery of a mysterious tunnel near the site of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced the find, saying it was still unclear what the tunnel\u2019s purpose was or how old it is. It measures 164 feet, 16 feet tall and roughly 10 feet wide.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":15116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Archaeologists Discover Mysterious Tunnel Near Ancient Kingdom of Judah<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jerusalem archaeologists uncover a mysterious ancient tunnel near Judah site, raising new questions about its age, purpose, and origin.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Archaeologists Discover Mysterious Tunnel Near Ancient Kingdom of Judah\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jerusalem archaeologists uncover a mysterious ancient tunnel near Judah site, raising new questions about its age, purpose, and origin.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-05T17:52:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/06\/Mysterious-Tunnel_credit-Israel-Antiquities-Authority.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Archaeologists Discover Mysterious Tunnel Near Ancient Kingdom of Judah","description":"Jerusalem archaeologists uncover a mysterious ancient tunnel near Judah site, raising new questions about its age, purpose, and origin.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Archaeologists Discover Mysterious Tunnel Near Ancient Kingdom of Judah","og_description":"Jerusalem archaeologists uncover a mysterious ancient tunnel near Judah site, raising new questions about its age, purpose, and origin.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2026-06-05T17:52:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/06\/Mysterious-Tunnel_credit-Israel-Antiquities-Authority.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah.html","name":"Archaeologists Discover Mysterious Tunnel Near Ancient Kingdom of Judah","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/06\/Mysterious-Tunnel_credit-Israel-Antiquities-Authority.jpg","datePublished":"2026-06-05T17:52:09+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-05T17:52:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"Jerusalem archaeologists uncover a mysterious ancient tunnel near Judah site, raising new questions about its age, purpose, and origin.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/06\/Mysterious-Tunnel_credit-Israel-Antiquities-Authority.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/06\/Mysterious-Tunnel_credit-Israel-Antiquities-Authority.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Israel Antiquities Authority"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/archaeologists-discover-mysterious-tunnel-near-ancient-kingdom-of-judah.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Archaeologists Discover Mysterious Tunnel Near Ancient Kingdom of Judah"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/","name":"Christ News Today","description":"Christian News From Around the Globe","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15119,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15113\/revisions\/15119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}