Holy Land battle: Solomon's Pools become flashpoint in fight over Israel's biblical heritage
Israeli officials say the ancient Solomon's Pools have fallen into disrepair under Palestinian Authority administration, raising concerns over preservation and biblical heritage.
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Aerial video captures the sprawling 2,000-year-old reservoirs that once supplied Jerusalem with water and are now at the center of a dispute over preservation, heritage and sovereignty. (Video by Yehoshua Sigala.)
Built more than 2,000 years ago to supply Jerusalem with water, Solomon's Pools have become the center of a modern political dispute, with officials from the nearby Israeli town of Efrat accusing the Palestinian Authority of allowing the historic site to deteriorate after it was placed under Ramallah's jurisdiction following the 1993 Oslo Accords.
Most archaeologists date the construction of Solomon's Pools, three ancient reservoirs located between Efrat and Bethlehem, south of Israel's capital, to the Hasmonean period in the second century B.C.
The reservoirs were built to supply water to Jerusalem during the Second Temple period.
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