Gethsemane

While constructing a tunnel near the garden of Gethsemane east of Jerusalem, builders uncovered an underground cavern that was later identified as a mikveh, or ritual bath, that was apparently used during the Second Temple era (516 BC to 70 AD). The bath was unearthed at the foot of the Mount of Olives, the ridge where the exalted garden of Gethsemane is located. The discovery of the ancient ritual bath was announced on December 21 (2020 AD) by the Israel Antiquities Authority, whose archaeologists conducted formal excavation procedures at the site. Scholars from the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, a Franciscan research institute, were consulted on the excavation and subsequent analysis of the ritual bath, which was found near the modern Franciscan