JERUSALEM (AFP).- Israeli archaeologists on Thursday unveiled new parts of a major public building in Jerusalem just metres from where the Second Jewish Temple is believed to have stood two millennia ago.

The opulent hall used by elites is the latest discovery to be made public by the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) from what it refers to as the Western Wall Tunnels in the Old City.

Along with the rest of east Jerusalem, the Old City was annexed by Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War in a move never recognised internationally.

The luxurious hall, parts of which had previously been revealed, included a sophisticated fountain.

It was probably used for banquets or other gatherings by local elites or to host visiting dignitaries -- a prized location given its proximity to what Israel calls the Temple Mount.

The Temple Mount is Judaism's holiest site but now houses the Haram al-Sharif compound, the third holiest site in Islam that includes the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock.

"It is a very magnificent building, one of the most magnificent public buildings that we know of from the Second Temple period," senior IAA archaeologist Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah told AFP.

The Second Jewish Temple was built under the reign of King Herod, a vassal of the Roman empire, and was destroyed by Roman forces in 70 AD.

Weksler-Bdolah said the more recently excavated parts of the hall shed light on how Jerusalem's rulers through history made certain to leave their mark, especially on prized terrain.

'Complexity of life'

Around the time of the Temple's destruction the banqueting hall was divided into different segments and there were "very, very impressive ritual baths" below the ground of the plaza, she said.

Weksler-Bdolah conceded that the different phases of construction at the site appeared "hectic" and that the exact chronology or motivations remain hard to understand.

But "you can really compare it with (modern) Jerusalem," she told AFP.

"Everyone who rules it has to put his flag, has to make a new plan, has to do something. If you don't do it, you don't exist."

She said the excavation showed that the hall was no longer in use by the time of the early Islamic period, which began in the 7th Century, as over the preceding centuries it had been packed with various types of fill.

During the early Islamic period the people of Jerusalem operated at a street level several metres (yards) above the hall.

Mordechai Soli Eliav, chairman of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, said the new finds will further "illustrate the complexity of Jewish life in Jerusalem," at the time.

Palestinians, who claim east Jerusalem including the Old City as the capital of their future state, have charged that excavations in the area threaten the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.


© Agence France-Presse