Coordinates | 31°46′33″N 35°14′12″E / 31.775808°N 35.236797°E |
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Type | Possible monastery |
History | |
Material | Stone |
Founded | 4th century |
Abandoned | 614 |
Periods | Byzantine |
Site notes | |
Excavation dates | 1968–1977 |
Archaeologists | Benjamin Mazar |
Condition | ruin, archaeological park |
Public access | yes |
The Monastery of the Virgins is a structure uncovered during Benjamin Mazar's excavations south of Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The large number of Christian religious finds from the site have prompted its identification with a monastery described by a pilgrim, Theodosius the archdeacon, in his De Situ Terrae Sanctae, a work of the early 6th century.[1] The building was constructed in the 4th century on the remains of an earlier Herodian building identified with the Second Temple courthouse, and was destroyed during the Persian sack of Jerusalem in 614.