Gilad Itach

The structure exposed in this excavation is different from most of the previously discovered farmsteads, its orderly plan, vast area, strong walls and the impressive water reservoir hewn beneath it suggest that the site was administrative in nature and it may well have controlled the surrounding farmsteads.

It is difficult not to be impressed by the sight of the immense underground reservoir quarried out so many years ago, in antiquity, rainwater collection and storage was a fundamental necessity. With an annual rainfall of 500 millimeters( 20 inches), the region’s winter rains would easily have filled the huge reservoir.