Mosaic Fountain & Its Pipes Discovered in Israel

RAMLA, ISRAEL—Highway construction in central Israel has uncovered the remains of a tenth or eleventh-century estate with a fountain in its garden. “It seems that a private building belonging to a wealthy family was located there and that the fountain was used for ornamentation,” said Hagit Torgë of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The stone and plaster fountain was decorated with mosaics, but it is unusual because its network of terra cotta pipes connected with stone jars has survived. The region was probably abandoned in the eleventh century, following an earthquake.