changes, which took place around 700 BCE, "altars for offering incense they took away and threw into the Wadi Kidron" (). During the same reforms and as part of the ritual cleaning of the Temple, the priests removed the unclean items from the inner part of the Temple to the courts, and the Levites carried the unclean items to Wadi Kidron (). Kidron Valley in Jewish eschatology The Book of Joel mentions that God will assemble all nations in the "Valley of Jehoshaphat" (, ). Gospels According to the New Testament, Jesus crossed the valley many times travelling between Jerusalem and Bethany. The valley contains the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed the night before he was crucified. The name Kidron was mentioned in . Archaeological excavations Upper course The Akeldama Tombs The Akeldma Tombs were discovered in 1989 at the confluence of the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys, south of Jerusalem's Old City, and were excavated and published by archaeologists Gideon Avni and Zvi Greenhut. In 1989, the Jerusalem Municipality conducted routine development work in the area. Upon widening a narrow street near one of the approaches to the Silwan village, bulldozers uncovered a number of square openings hewn into rock. The Israel Antiquities Authority immediately stopped the road construction. After uncovering the underground spaces, archaeologists found themselves standing inside large burial complexes which appeared intact. Moving carefully from one chamber to another, flashlights revealed an abundance of artifacts scattered on the floors, pottery and glass vessels, oil lamps and many ornamental ossuaries. The three large caves proved to be part of an extensive Jewish burial ground in use at the end of the Second Temple period, which terminated in the year 70 AD, when Jerusalem was conquered and the Temple destroyed by the Roman legions. Development and plans Upper course As of 2010, there is a controversial proposal to reconstruct part of the Kidron Valley, an Arab neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, and turn it into a park to be called the Garden of the King. Lower course A road crossing the very steep Wadi Naar (lower Kidron Valley) and connecting Arab towns has been substantially upgraded as part of the USAID effort to modernise the Arab infrastructure. An existing road has been widened and re-paved, and efforts were made to improve the route it takes. Kidron stream restoration project Currently, part of East Jerusalem's and the Palestinian