The Nea Church: Were the Temple Treasures Hidden Here?

In documenting the history of the Nea Church or New Church of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, built under Justinian the Great in the 6th c., the author suggests that the looted treasure of Solomon’s Temple may have been deposited in the subterranean vaults of the Nea Church during that emperor’s reign. This edifice was the largest basilica of the entire Holy Land in its time. To locate the building in Jerusalem, reference is made to the Madaba Mosaic Map (p. 54-55, fig. on 55). Moreover, it is known that the Nea Church survived the Persian attack on Jerusalem in the 7th c, since it appears in the panel representing the city of Jerusalem, found in the border of the mosaic in the nave of Church of St. Stephen at Umm er-Rasas, dated to the 8th c. (p. 55, 59, fig. on 59). In both mosaics, the Nea Church appears as a red-roofed structure.