Cedric Delauny was about thirty years old, of average height with regular features, his dark hair was thick and long, wavy and disordered, he wore a fashionable half beard with a three day’s growth on his cheeks. He wore a white collarless shirt and white jeans.
Alfred Mann had a small poorly equipped office in the Old City of Jerusalem, it was pompously called an observatory, its supposed role was to monitor relations between Jews and Muslims in his trust’s quixotic crusade to promote peace.
O’Connelly could not help thinking that Delauny resembled an idealised or pop image of Jesus Christ. Moreover, Delauny’s smiling manner was cultivated to exude warm and a tolerant, benevolent attitude towards all those he met. He could have been described as a disciple of Alfred Mann, whom he admired and obeyed.
‘The trouble with the Palestinians is that they believe Israelis always try to fit historical evidence into a biblical context, adapting it to their policy of colonisation in Jerusalem,’ suggested O’Connelly.
‘It’s part of a general confusion over the Temple site, most of the population, including religious and political leaders, believe that the walls that support the platform on which the Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock are built were part of King Herod’s Temple, which incidentally pre-existed Islam by centuries,’ said Delauny appearing well informed, though in fact he was simply repeated what he had heard from those around him.
‘If I’m right it was part of the supporting wall built by Herod.’
‘According to archaeologists.’
‘I’ve heard a rumour about a site outside of the Old City,’ said O’Connelly changing tack in the hope of gleaning some information.’
‘Yes, it’s all kept very quiet, there’s a group of archaeologists working on a site just outside of the Old City of Jerusalem, below the Mount of Olives and near the Kedron Valley, top secret so the rumour goes.’
‘Secret!’
“Yes, it seems like there’s a tight security veil around the site, it’s completely closed off and roofed in. You need a pass from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to get in.’
O’Connelly had already learnt that secret archaeological sites in Israel were two a penny, every archaeologist dreamed of making a sensational find and a few even went as far as inventing them, which seemed to be the case for de Lussac, though his idea was better in the sense it was unthinkable he Waqf would even let an excavation be carried out under the Haram.
There however remained other sites outside of the Old City such as in the City of David that lay to the south of ramparts, a site had been excavated for almost a century without any find that could shed some real ght on the Bible story.