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Jerusalem |
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Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1, p. 48. |
Fountain of the Gate
of the Chain-Bab es Silsileh
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The works connected with the water supply of Jerusalem are of very great
interest . . . .The present supply is deficient in quantity and as a rule bad in
quality; to this may be attributed the fact that the city which the Psalmist
once described in loving terms as "the joy of the whole earth," has become one
of the most unhealthy cities of the world . . . .the average annual rainfall is
really not more than about nineteen inches, and the rainy season is spread over
the winter months from November to March. During the remaining months even a
slight shower is of the rarest occurrence . . . .The number of cisterns and
reservoirs which were excavated or built for the collection of the rainfall, and
the skill exhibited in the construction of the conduits that brought water into
the city, show pretty clearly that there has been no material change in the
climate since the days of the Jewish monarchy. The modern supply of water is
derived from springs, wells, cisterns, pools, or reservoirs, and springs
connected with the city by aqueducts. (Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1,
pp. 101-2.) |
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Birket Israil-The Pool of Bethesda |
Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1, p. 66. |
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The eastern portion of the north side of
the Haram esh Sherif is protected by the
Birket Israil, known traditionally as the Pool
of Bethesda. The reservoir is situated in a
valley which takes its rise to the north of
the city wall, and runs out into the Kedron
valley about one hundred and forty-three feet
south of the north-east angle of the Haram
enclosure. The valley is now little more than
a shallow depression, but excavations have
shown that in the lower portions of its course
it assumes the character of a deep ravine . .
. . The Birket Israil is three hundred and
sixty feet long, one hundred and twenty-six
feet wide, and eighty feet deep, but its great
size can hardly be appreciated on account of
the rubbish, which rises to a height of
thirty-five feet above the floor. At the west
end are two parallel passages running
westwards along the Haram wall, whence a
flight of irregular steps leads down to the
pool; the east end is closed by a dam
forty-five feet thick, which is also part of
the city walls. No trace has yet been found of
the system of conduits by which it was
supplied with water. (Source: Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1, pp. 45-46.) |
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Source: Earthly Footsteps of the Man of Galilee, p. 197. |
Dragon's Fountain |
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The fountain is in the valley of the Kidron,
just below the village of Siloam. It rises
from the bottom of a deep cave at the base of
Ophel. The masonry in the sides of the cave is
ancient. A long flight of steps leads down to
the water, which issues from under the lowest
step, flows across the bottom of the cave, and
disappears, with a weird, murmuring sound,
into a narrow, dark, rock-hewn tunnel. What
has given this fountain, both in ancient and
modern times, its greatest celebrity is the
intermittent flow of the water . . . .A woman,
who was accustomed to wash at the fountain
daily, informed them that the flowing occurs
at irregular intervals-sometimes two or three
times a day, and sometimes only once in two or
three days. The common legend is, that a
dragon lies within the fountain: when awake he
stops the water, when he sleeps it flows.
Instead of a dragon the Jews believed an angel
was the cause. (Source:
Jerusalem, Bethany, and Bethlehem, p. 93.) |
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The Birket Mamilla, Commonly Called the
Upper Pool of Gihon |
Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1, p. 102. |
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The Birket Mamilla collects the surface
drainage of the upper part of the Valley of
Hinnom, and transmits its water to the Pool of
Hezekiah by a conduit which passes under the
city wall a little to the north of the Jaffa
Gate, and has a branch running down to the
cisterns in the Citadel . . . .The average
depth of the pool is nineteen feet; it is
three hundred and fifteen feet long, and two
hundred and eight feet wide; the estimated
capacity is eight million gallons, but there
is a large accumulation of rubbish at the
bottom, and it now holds water imperfectly.
The pool has not been well placed for
collecting the drainage, as that from the
western slope is lost, but the position was
necessary to obtain a level high enough to
supply the Pool of Hezekiah and the Citadel. A
hole in the ground below the lower end of the
pool gives access to a flight of steps leading
down to a small chamber, where the conduit,
which on leaving the pool is twenty-one inches
square, narrows to nine inches, so as to allow
of an arrangement for regulating the flow of
water into the city. (Source: Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1, p. 108.) |
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See
Hezekiah's Pool,
the
Pool of Siloam,
the
Pools of Solomon,
Water Supplies,
or Water in Egypt |
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