Monastery of the Virgins

Monastery of the Virgins
Coordinates31°46′33″N 35°14′12″E / 31.775808°N 35.236797°E / 31.775808; 35.236797
TypePossible monastery
History
MaterialStone
Founded4th century
Abandoned614
PeriodsByzantine
Site notes
Excavation dates1968–1977
ArchaeologistsBenjamin Mazar
Conditionruin, archaeological park
Public accessyes

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.

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