If you have gazed with wonder at those massive stones that form the Western Wall and wondered where they came from, you are not alone in your curiosity.

For years archeologists have assumed that the giant limestones used by King Herod for the reconstruction of the Second Beit Hamikdash and the Western Wall came from a quarry located in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is now believed that they came from an ancient quarry four kilometers northwest of the Old City, in the city's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood. It was discovered during a "salvage excavation" conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority in conjunction with municipal plans to build an elementary school in the area.

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