The discovery of more of the ruins of the Second Temple in Jerusalem clearly puts the lie to claims by some Islamists that there was never a Jewish temple on Temple Mount -- and seems to confirm the belief of some Jewish groups that renovations and improvements by Muslim religious authorities are really directed at destroying Jewish artifacts there.

Remains of the Jewish second temple may have been found during work to lay pipes at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem, Israeli television reported Thursday.

Israeli television broadcast footage of a mechanical digger at the site which Israeli archaeologists visited on Thursday.

Gaby Barkai, an archaeologist from Bar Ilan University, urged the Israeli government to stop the pipework after the discovery of what he said is "a massive seven metre-long wall."

Television said the pipework carried out by the office of Muslim religious affairs, or Waqf, is about 1.5 metres deep and about 100 metres long.

The compound, which houses both Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is located in east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and then annexed. It is the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina.

For Jews it as known as the Temple Mount, which they revere as the site of the King Herod's second temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. It is the holiest site in Judaism.

All that remains today is the temple's Western Wall, or Wailing wall.

I agree with Barkari's assessment that the Israeli government must act to stop the construction work so that this historical treasure may be preserved, studied, and properly venerated by the Jewish faithful.

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