A 2,000-year-old Jewish ritual bath weighing about 25 tons was lifted intact from the ground in the southern city of Kiryat Gat this summer, the Israel Antiquities Authority said on Thursday.

The Second Temple-period mikveh was uncovered during salvage excavations before construction in the city’s Carmei Gat neighborhood. The discovery provides evidence of a previously unknown Jewish settlement between the Judean Lowlands and the northern Negev, the IAA said.

Hoisted by a huge crane, the ancient mikveh was moved in July to the IAA’s National Treasures Department in Beit Guvrin to protect it amid ongoing construction in the rapidly developing neighborhood of Carmei Gat, the authority said. Once the work is completed, it added, the structure will be returned to Carmei Gat and incorporated into an open public space.

“Once you lift up a structure like this, there is no going back,” said Eyal Kaho, a senior IAA conservator who led the operation. “If it falls apart, we’ve lost the mikveh. Therefore, every detail must be considered in advance.”

Ahead of the operation, four members of the IAA’s Conservation Administration spent about two weeks preparing the structure for removal. They excavated around the bath to expose it on all sides, then drilled beneath it and inserted steel beams to create a supporting framework that would allow the mikveh to be detached from the ground.

Because the ritual bath needed to be lifted from a........

© The Times of Israel