Discovery of the mansion linked to Queen Helene of Adiabene by Daniela Simkova

Imagine that you live in the place you think it's no special. The city chooses to built a parking lot nearby and that's it, an ordinary life. What would happen anyway? It is just a parking lot for the tourists, people of your city, free to anyone. But not everything is as simple as it looks like. Diggers uncovered a mansion of a great extend. Not typical for that period and different than other houses of this region. Archaeologists stated that this mansion may be related to famous Queen Helene, whose family ruled region of Adiabene, today known as Iraq. Queen Helene moved to Jerusalem in the first half of the first century A.D. and converted to Judaism. She became famous for her generosity to poor people and also for the collaboration with the Second Temple, which was the center of the Jewish faith. Queen Helene was buried near the Second Temple not far away from her house. She is often praised in the texts, which means she has an importance of a bigger extend in history of this city. Discovered mansion matches to the historical description of the Queens Helene's house. We can then assume that this mansion belonged to her family. The remains of the mansion were discovered right outside of the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, today eastern Jerusalem. The mansion contained storeroom, ritual baths, living quarters, and also some coins dating to the time when the Jewish revolt was quelled by a Roman legions. "This amazing structure was destroyed with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.," said the Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists Doron Ben-Ami. Now, there is a downtown street in Jerusalem named for her.

by Daniela Simkova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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