A place of worship sealed up by the ancestors of Jesus has been discovered in the ancient heart of Jerusalem, frozen in time for nearly 3,000 years.

Carved into the rock near Temple Mount, the structure comprises eight rooms, containing an altar, a sacred standing stone, and presses for olive oil and wine.

And experts believe its destruction may have featured in the Bible, which describes how Hezekiah – one of Jesus’ ancestors – smashed idolatrous places of worship. This was one such place, according to Eli Shukron, exacavation director for the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), who dated it to Hezekiah’s reign.

He said: ‘The structure ceased to function during the 8th century BC, possibly as part of king Hezekiah’s religious reform.

‘According to the Bible, Hezekiah sought to centralise worship at the temple in Jerusalem, abolishing the ritual sites scattered across the kingdom.

‘The Bible describes how, during the First Temple period, additional ritual sites operated outside the temple.

‘It says two kings of Judah – Hezekiah and Josiah – implemented reforms to eliminate these sites and concentrate worship at the temple.’ Both kings are identified as paternal grandfathers of Jesus by the Gospel of Matthew.

Hezekiah’s crackdown against pagan places of worship – or ‘high places’ – is described in the second book of Kings.

It recounts how he ‘removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones’ and ‘did what was right in the eyes of the lord’.

Remarkably, the sacred standing stone at the site survived his onslaught.

Shukron called it ‘the most dramatic and important find in the excavation’.

‘This is what makes this place a cultic site,’ he said.

‘When we uncovered it, we found it standing in its place, with stones around it.

‘The standing stone was covered with earth; it was preserved – no one destroyed it.

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