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- Heaps of “construction debris” from the depths of the Temple Mount have been discarded by the Muslim Waqf as part of the renovation work at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Archaeologists collected the “refuse” and began to sort through it with the assistance of “civilians”. Every day, valuable items are found – a silent testimony to the Jewish life that flourished there.Even today, on the 17th of Tammuz, the date when the beginning of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple is marked, archaeologists continue to dig through piles of dirt and refuse, brought almost daily from the Temple Mount area, and find valuable evidence of the life lived here more than two thousand years ago. The Temple Mount – the location of the First and Second Temples – is considered the holiest place for the Jewish people. But despite its great importance, no archaeological excavations were ever conducted on the mount under the control of the Muslim Waqf. Until the last few years, when the Waqf decided to expand the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in the southeast corner of the mount, known as “Solomon’s stables”.The renovation works, which are being carried out outside the watchful eyes of the archaeologists, resulted in the removal of tons of “refuse” – heaps of dirt that were spilled in the area of the Kidron River. Tzachi Dvira (Zweig), an archaeology student at Bar Ilan University, who heard about what was happening, took a number of clay pots from the First and Second Temple periods, and brought them to his lecturer at the university, Dr. Gabi Barkay.