Photos: Israel unveils major new finds from Jerusalem's Second Temple era

Jerusalem: 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 West Wall Tunnels in the Old City. 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.

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."