OLD JERUSALEM.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 147, 22 June 1923, Page 5

OLD JERUSALEM.

DIGGING AMONG THE RUINS,

SEARCH FOR TOMBS OF KINGS.

MONUMENTS OF VICTORIES.

(By Cable.— rress Association.—Copyright.) LONDON, June 21. The Palestine Exploration Fund, assisted by the "Daily Telegraph," has arranged with the Palestine Government to conduct important excavations at the Ophcl Hill, Jerusalem. Dr. R. G. Hogarth, at a meeting of the committee of the fund to-day, said it was possible the tombs of the Kings would be found and treasures of the time of David and Solomon revealed in the accumulation of rubbish, including the inscribed monument recording David's victories.

Professor McAlistcr, who is in charge of the excavations, recalled that the "Daily Telegraph" financed George Smith's expedition to Kauynujik in 1873, which discovered the cuneiform tablets relating to the Babylon tradition of the Flood.

The excavations in Jerusalem will begin in September on the eastern hill, south of the city wall, which scholars have long recognised as a Jebusite fortress, afterwards known as the "City of David." Professor McAlistcr recalled that Josephus states that Simon Maccabaeus demolished the Akra, which was a sort of citadel that over-topped the temple. The work of destruction took the townsfolk of Jerusalem three years to accomplish, working day and night. It might be possible to find remains of the Akra which Simon Maceabaeus toppled into the adjacent valley. There were also to be solved problems raised by records in the Tel el Amarna tablets. King , Abdkhiba, who was an accomplished intriguer and diplomatist, might have left an archive chamber on the hill of David.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)