A soap-production factory from the Ottoman period in Sūq al-Fakhir, the Old City of Jerusalem

Süq Khān al-Zayt, the central of three parallel markets, crosses Jerusalem's Old City from north to south. A salvage excavation conducted in one of the market stores revealed four main phases (A-D). The hall where the excavations were carried out was established during Phase B. It comprises three pairs of parallel pillars, within which a series of installations were constructed. Some of the installations are coated with hydraulic plaster, others were identified as ovens. The installations were probably in the soap industry, with ovens and vats used to boil oil as part of the production process. These installations may have been part of the soap-manufacturing factory described by the fifteenth-century historian Mujir al-Din.