In early July, an ancient mikveh, a ritual bath in which observant Jews dip to purify themselves, was discovered in the pastoral Jerusalem neighborhood of Ein Karem. The 2,000-year-old mikveh, which would have been filled with rainwater, was found during renovation work on a home in the neighborhood. It was well preserved, down to some stone and clay tools on the pool floor, and probably served its owners at the time of the Second Temple. The unearthing of the mikveh strengthens the evidence of a Jewish link to ancient Ein Karem, the Arab-Palestinian and Christian links having already been established.

“There’s no other village like it in the whole world, the history of which pertains to the heart of Christianity, Judaism and Islam,” Moshe Amirav told Al-Monitor. A professor and resident of the neighborhood for some 40 years, Amirav has written two books on the village and is considered an international expert on its history. “The Jewish story is the habitations of Jews in the village for 1,000 years — a place where, according to various sources, the stones of the temple altar were built. The Christian story recounts how Elisheva, the mother of John the Baptist, met her cousin Miriam, the mother of Jesus, at the lip of the village well when both were carrying their sons in their wombs. The Muslim story is that of Omar bin al-Khattab, the conqueror of Jerusalem, who rested in Ein Karem and drank the water from its well that gave him the strength to capture the city.”

Archaeological evidence of the Jewish connection to Ein Karem has only been found in recent years, beginning with the 2004 discovery of a mikveh in the village. Amirav had found a cistern in the John the Baptist Church that turned out to be a purification bath. That discovery drew international attention and was the first evidence of a Jewish link to ancient Ein Karem, a connection that until then had only been cited in texts.

Now a second mikveh, large and impressive, has been found. “We were very excited by this discovery,” said Uriyah, a poet who lives with her partner, Tal, and their six children in the house where the mikveh was found. Requesting that her full name not be divulged to avoid droves of curious tourists, she told Al-Monitor, “This connected me very much to our Jewish heritage. For us, every descent into the space of the mikveh is a kind of descent through the tunnel of time.”