Jerusalem Explored Part 31

[849] Jewish War, V. 7, -- 3; V. 9, -- 1.

[850] 2 Kings xviii. 17; 2 Chron. x.x.xii. 3, 4, 30; Isaiah vii. 3.

[851] Jewish War, V. 3, -- 2.

[852] Page 24.

[853] De Locis Hebr. litt. T. (Tapheth).

[854] 2 Kings xviii. 17; Isaiah vii. 3.

[855] La Citez de Jherusalem, De Vogue, Les eglises, &c. p. 442.

[856] Page 40.

[857] E. T. S. Lib. VI. pereg. 4, c. 7, Tom. II. p. 712, col. 2, ed. 1639.

[858] Plate LXIII.

[859] Pars II. p. 254, ed. Bonn, e cod. Claromont.

CHAPTER VIII.

ON THE WATERS, FIT OR UNFIT FOR DRINKING, IN JERUSALEM AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.

In the seven preceding chapters I have several times mentioned the waters, drinkable and undrinkable, and the sewers, when we have come across them in the course of our investigations; but I have not always entered into details, reserving them for this chapter. Therefore I now proceed to treat the subject at length, with the view of shewing, as clearly as is possible, the means which the former inhabitants of Jerusalem possessed of obtaining an abundant supply of water, and removing the sewage of the city; and I shall also notice the carelessness exhibited by the Arabs with regard to every part of the works of their predecessors in the country, and how they rather employ themselves in accelerating than in arresting their destruction.

I am persuaded that there are some springs in Jerusalem and in its neighbourhood; but these have never been sufficient to supply the wants of the population without a.s.sistance; consequently the earlier Jewish Kings executed important hydraulic works to introduce an abundant supply into the city, and to preserve it there in reservoirs, to be used both for the wants of life and for purposes of purification; and, above all, for the requirements of the Temple-services, which were very considerable. I have no doubt that the most extensive works were commenced in David's reign, and carried still further in that of his son Solomon. These are yet in existence, and might even now be in operation, had they not fallen into the hands of an ignorant and almost barbarous race, who are perpetually endeavouring to destroy them, without ever thinking that they are thus aggravating the deficiency of water, and placing the town in danger of being entirely deprived of it, if at any time the rainfall is insufficient. The local government has several times considered the mischief that may thus be caused, and has taken steps accordingly to prevent it; but, weak as it is, has never been able to make its orders respected. From this reproach, however, I except the provident rule of Surraya Pasha, which is now over.

According to my opinion, it was Solomon that ordered and executed the important work of bringing the water from Etham into Jerusalem by means of a conduit; which is indeed generally attributed to him, though it is called by a few that of Pontius Pilate. The primary design of this undertaking was unquestionably that the Temple and its precincts might not suffer from a lack of water. It is very remarkable that neither the Bible nor Josephus make express mention of this; but it is probable that all the pools, now existing at Etham, are referred to in Ecclesiastes[860]; and Josephus[861] informs us that the summer-palace of Solomon was at the town of Etham, in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, fifty stadia from Jerusalem. Perhaps he did not describe the water-works, because he considered them well-known. However, it is certain that history does not afford us any positive _data_ for ascribing these constructions to Solomon; but the magnitude of the work, and tradition, induce me to attribute them to him. As it was on these pools of Etham that the city mainly depended for its supply, I will describe them first of all.

Quitting the Jaffa Gate we take the direct road to Etham, pa.s.sing the Tomb of Rachel, and leaving Bethlehem on the left; it is a ride of two hours and a half. Here is an old castle[862], called by the Arabs _Kalat el-Burak_ (Castle of the Lightning), of which the outer walls, with battlements, remain perfect; but the interior is all in ruins, and only serves to harbour swarms of bees. History does not tell us when or by whom it was built, but from its architecture and masonry it must evidently be a.s.signed to the twelfth or thirteenth century; the design being, no doubt, to accommodate a small garrison in order to secure the waters. It is not improbable that the Crusaders erected it to prevent the hostile tribes from cutting off the water-supply from Jerusalem, which would have been liable to this deprivation without such a precaution. To the south are the three reservoirs, situated in the middle of the Etham Valley, which slopes steeply down from west to east.

These are filled by the rain-water drained from the slopes of the mountains on each side, and by an abundant supply from a spring on the west of the castle, in a straight line along the direction of its north side, at a distance of about 450 yards. I mention this, because its rudely circular opening, like the mouth of a cistern, is hidden in a field under a ma.s.s of stones thickly covered with creeping plants, and so is sometimes not easily found without a guide. Possibly this spring is mentioned in the Song of Solomon[863], in the words, "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed;"

hence it is now called 'fons signatus' by the Christians, and _Ras el-Ain_ (Head of the Fountain), and also _Ain Saleh_ by the Arabs. Let us examine its interior by descending an inconvenient shaft, like those in cisterns; looking well where we set our feet, lest we come to the bottom in a single step, a depth of about 12 feet only, but a rough fall. On arriving below, we crawl a short distance, and then find ourselves in a rectangular chamber 18 feet long from north to south, 10 wide, and 20 high. The lower parts of the walls are formed of the great blocks characteristic of the era of Solomon; the upper contain some with rustic work in low relief, which diminishes towards the top of the vault, where the stones are dressed smooth and flat. Hence I consider that the chamber has been restored at different periods; an opinion confirmed by the barrel-vault formed of long oblong stones, skilfully laid with mortar. In the middle of the west wall is an opening leading into a narrow cave, at the western extremity of which a limpid, cool, and abundant spring issues from a natural channel in the rock, which cannot be followed up by reason of its narrowness and the breaks in its level. Where the water runs along the floor, we observe the remains of an ancient ca.n.a.l formed of hard cement, which still exhibits some fragments of earthenware pipes about ten inches in diameter. In the corners of this cave are two other crevices in the rock, from which issue small springs that unite with the former in the middle of the first chamber. In this there is a basin, originally intended to act as a filter, which is now out of repair, and receives the water on its way to the conduit running to the east. Owing to the injuries done by the hand of man, and the acc.u.mulation of extraneous substances, a large part of the stream escapes into the ground, and is lost. I have repeatedly visited this place at the various seasons of the year, and have found the fountain flowing most copiously in winter, but there is no deficiency in summer; so that if the reservoirs and conduits were properly kept up, Jerusalem would never be in want of spring-water, and the health and comfort of its inhabitants would be improved by the decrease of fevers, and the increase of cleanliness. The eastern conduit is mainly excavated in the solid rock, especially near its mouth; but the upper part, which is vaulted for the first 20 feet, is then covered with large slabs, as far as the south-west corner of the castle. At first it is 3 feet wide and 4 high, but it gradually becomes narrower and lower as it approaches this corner, and can therefore only be traversed for a distance of 86 feet, when the walls, hewn out of the rock, are replaced by others of masonry, although rock continues to form the bottom of the conduit. This aqueduct, running in a curve from the spring to the castle, empties part of its contents into a round basin, near the north-west corner of the first pool, whence it flows into the pool; so that there is usually water in this even in the height of summer, when the other two are generally dry. Before proceeding to describe the course of the water, both from the round basin and in other directions, I call attention to the three large reservoirs, which are mainly excavated in the rock, the eastern side alone of each being formed of solid masonry, built in steps externally to resist the pressure of the water. In these walls, and especially in their lower parts, very ancient Jewish work is seen, which may be a.s.signed to the reign of Solomon; not the slightest trace of mortar is visible, and where the wall has been wantonly injured, pieces of iron appear with the holes in the stones for clamps. The walls are now faced with Arab cement (the last was put on in 1857 and 1860); but in places fragments of an ancient compost still remain, so compact and hard that it has withstood the injuries of twenty-nine centuries. The Plan shews the arrangement and dimensions of these reservoirs, and the Section their inclination and respective depths, so that I need not enter into particulars on these points, but only remark that the eastern end of each is connected with a subterranean chamber, wherein we can observe the various channels which have been used, according to circ.u.mstances, to augment the outflow of the stream from the upper to the lower reservoir. In these the original vaulting still remains, circular in form and constructed of blocks, built together without mortar; that belonging to the last pool on the east is the largest, from which the conduit starts which goes to the _castellum_[864], and thence to Jerusalem. We will now return to the first-mentioned conduit. I have already said that the aqueduct from the 'Sealed Fountain' discharges a portion of its waters into the round basin; another portion flows along a covered ca.n.a.l, visible on the surface, which runs along by the side of the three pools, supplying a fountain near the north-east corner of the first of them, and then emptying itself into the _castellum_ just mentioned. In case of too great a quant.i.ty of water flowing into the round basin, and being forced back by the first pool becoming full, the overplus is not lost, but escapes through a third aperture into a subterranean chamber, on the west of the basin, and almost united to it, where it joins the stream coming from a very deep spring (not before mentioned), whence it is conducted by a subterranean ca.n.a.l (whether this is artificial or natural I have not been able to decide) to the _castellum_ on the east of the lowest pool. This point I have proved by stopping up the supply of water from the other quarters; an experiment which was witnessed by M. de Barrere and M. E. Meshullam. Another spring also supplies the latter _castellum_, the stream from which, rising at a distance of about 750 feet, comes down the valley, and runs parallel to the east end of the lowest pool; this is called by the Arabs _Ain Atan_, and is the best water in Palestine, but is not very abundant, from the way in which the neighbourhood of the source has been cleared of trees. The above-named fountains are not all of those which formerly supported the gardens of Solomon and Jerusalem; two conduits from the south increased the supply; one of which came from the neighbourhood of Hebron (to the south of the village of _Halhul_), and flowed into the lowest pool: another, from the mountains near Etham, emptied itself into the first pool. The whole course of these conduits can be traced; but it is sad to see them becoming more and more ruinous every year, when, with little trouble and expense, they could be sufficiently repaired to be of immense benefit to the places through which they run. In case the three pools became full, and the great influx into the lower _castellum_ produced a flood, the water escaped by a ca.n.a.l, following the course of the valley, and flowed into two pools, at some distance apart, smaller than those above: there, no doubt, it was kept to irrigate the gardens below, which may be identified with the 'garden inclosed[865]' of Solomon. The important remains of buildings and pools which M. Meshullam has discovered and laid open, while bringing (most successfully) the ground under cultivation, are proofs of this point. The shape of the lower pools and the materials employed in them shew that they are of the same age as the upper. It is impossible to suppose that these can be the work of any of the conquerors of Palestine, for none of them would have undertaken a work of such magnitude, especially as their mission has always been rather to destroy than to build; neither can we attribute them to Herod, on account of the silence of Josephus, who mentions all his chief works; so that we naturally a.s.sign them to the epoch of Solomon. The ability of the engineer who constructed these works is shewn even more in the aqueduct than in the pools, as it falls and rises, winding through valleys and hills on its way from the _castellum_, until, after a course of about 40,000 feet, it empties itself into the great reservoir in the Valley of Gihon, not far from, and on the north of, the _Birket es-Sultan_ (the ancient Lower Pool), where its waters were allowed to settle. Here the aqueduct was formerly divided into two branches, whereof the one flowed into the pool below, and the other, after crossing the valley, still rises up the side of Sion, and having skirted the eastern slopes above the Tyropoeon valley, crosses it and enters Moriah, as I have already described[866]. The whole course of this aqueduct still remains, and we can observe that a large portion of it is hewn in the rock, and covered up with large slabs, while in other parts it is formed of earthenware pipes eight inches in diameter, which are skilfully laid with strong cement between stones cut in a proper shape, and protected above with solid masonry. The various Arab restorations, at different periods, have considerably modified the form of the aqueduct, but nevertheless enough remains to enable us to study its construction. Josephus[867] mentions that Pilate spent the sacred treasure upon an aqueduct, and some have understood from this that he constructed the one of which we speak. I cannot however suppose that the Governor of a province would have been able to carry out a work of such magnitude; and had it been done, the memory of it would have been preserved by tradition. Josephus, indeed, speaks of the length of the work as 400 stadia, but this, I think, must be a mistake in the ma.n.u.scripts; 40 would be nearer to the proper amount. The Talmud[868]

states that the aqueduct bringing the water into Moriah emptied itself into the 'sea of bronze,' and that the spring from which it was supplied was 23 cubits higher than the pavement of the Temple. This is the actual height of the 'fountain inclosed;' and this aqueduct does communicate, as we have shewn, with the supposed site of the 'sea.' The aqueduct has been restored at various times, since history informs us that Cathuba, Sultan of Egypt, expended large sums in bringing the waters from the vicinity of Hebron to the three pools at Etham; and in the thirteenth century, Sultan Mohammed Ibn-Kelaoun repaired the ancient works of Solomon to convey the water into Moriah, which had been diverted when Saladin broke down the aqueduct, in order to cut off the supply from the Crusaders[869]. The Mohammedan chronicles relate that Solyman the Magnificent went to great expense in restoring it. At a later period, under the government of Kiamil Pasha and Surraya Pasha, in 1856 and in 1860, the waters of Etham were brought into Jerusalem, on which occasion I co-operated with the Turkish engineer, a.s.sad Effendi; but these last repairs have not been permanent, because the _fellahin_ divert the water for their private purposes, and those whose duty it is to guard the aqueduct are bribed to blindness by a present of a lamb or some money.

Until the Governor adopts rigorous measures, the water will be used by the herdsmen, and will not reach the city.

I will now briefly indicate the advantages that the waters of Etham must have produced when they supplied Jerusalem. (1) They filled _Birket es-Sultan_, or the lower pool, at the southern end of the Valley of Gihon, then irrigated the gardens and fields in the Valley of Hinnom, and afterwards flowed into the Kidron, augmenting its volume and aiding in sweeping away the sewage from the Temple. I have found at certain places in the Valley of Hinnom remains of ancient walls, which I consider to have belonged to pools formed there to keep the water until it was wanted for the neighbouring fields. (2) When the water arrived at the western extremity of the bridge across the Tyropoeon, a branch conduit, as I believe, carried a portion of it northward to supply the different fountains, which still exist in the valley, and also to aid in filling the Pool of Bethesda; which however was also supplied by the conduit from the northern valley, and by others from the pool outside S.

Mary's Gate, which was filled from the ditch on the north-east outside the city. Hence it appears that the lower city was well provided with water. The works which I have hitherto described could still be restored with the greatest ease, if the Government chose to expend 7200 in repairing them in different places, and to organize an effective police to guard the aqueduct from injury by any chance comer; a thing at present impossible, owing to the venality of the officials of the Government, and the barbarism of the Arabs. The former, however, is the more insurmountable evil. In 1860 I proposed a plan to Surraya Pasha for securing the water-supply from Etham, and shewed how the expenditure might be repaid by a rate on Jerusalem and Bethlehem (which is on the course of the conduit, and receives benefit from it); this rate would be a positive gain to the inhabitants of the former place, as it would save them from the capricious and exaggerated demands of those who bring water into the city, when the cisterns have failed in a season of drought. He at once perceived the advantages of my plan, but was unable to carry it into effect, as he could not secure the necessary co-operation. A short time since a European engineer proposed to bring the water from Etham to Jerusalem by cast-iron pipes, which were to start from the Tomb of Rachel, on the Bethlehem road, about four miles from Jerusalem, and bring it up to the summit of the tower, which I call Phasaelus, in the Castle of David, from which the central valley was to be supplied. I am convinced that this plan is impracticable in Palestine, not only from the great expense, but also because the Government could never consent to turn into water-works a place which would be their chief stronghold in case of an insurrection of the Bedouins or _fellahin_; besides, the pipes themselves would be eagerly sought after as booty. If it has not been, and is not possible to restore that which now exists, how can anything new be done?

Circ.u.mstances will alter, and then we may hope that Palestine will advance as Europe is doing; but the good time has not yet come, and still seems to be far distant.

Etham was not the only place that supplied Jerusalem with water; for some came from the west, from the Upper Pool of Gihon (the present _Birket Mamillah_[870]). From the words of the Bible[871] we should expect that a fountain was in its neighbourhood; but as the ground near is now converted into a Mohammedan cemetery, it is impossible to make any excavations, and I must therefore content myself with explaining what can be seen above ground. The Pool _Mamillah_ has been excavated in the rock; by whom history does not tell us, but it is certainly older than the time of Hezekiah, for Isaiah met Ahaz 'at the end of the conduit of the upper pool[872],' on the occasion of the prophecy, 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.' This pool occupies a favourable position for collecting the water that drains from the slopes of the neighbouring hills in a rainy season. It formerly supplied not only the Pool Amygdalon in the city (as it still does), but also the lower pool in the valley or _Birket es-Sultan_. Finding the Pool _Mamillah_ dry in the summer-season, I made a careful examination of it, especially on the western side, to see if I could find any mouths of conduits, but could not discover the slightest trace; so that if there ever were any, they have entirely disappeared under the various restorations that the place has undergone. At the present time its waters are unfit to drink owing to the surrounding cemeteries; but this would not render them less useful to the city, if the pool were put in order so as to prevent the waters from being absorbed by the rubbish which thickly covers the bottom, and from escaping through the crevices in the sides, now unstopped with cement, and if the conduit were properly repaired and protected. Were all these works in good condition, the pool would be filled at the time of the rains, and would supply the Pool Amygdalon[873]; and in that case the two would annually furnish the water required by the bath in the Christian bazaar, and its proprietors be able to make money by selling what they did not require to the builders. It is surprising that the Arabs do not see the advantages that they would gain, especially as the cost of the repairs would not be more than 600.

In my opinion these two pools and their conduit answer to the descriptions given us in various pa.s.sages of the Bible. We read[874]

that when the officers of the king of a.s.syria arrived with a great host from Lachish, "they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field." Their army must have encamped on the west, and extended as far as the present site of the Latin Convent of S. Saviour, as the position was commanding and well suited for marshalling troops before an attack, and the walls were unprotected by any natural defences. Again, we find[875] that during the conference between the general of Sennacherib and the chief men in Jerusalem, they were within hearing of the men on the wall. So when Sennacherib menaced Jerusalem, Hezekiah[876] "stopped the waters of the fountains which were without the city; repaired Millo in the city of David (the present Amygdalon), and stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David." This I understand to mean that Hezekiah wished to deprive the enemy of water, and so enclosed Amygdalon with a wall on the west and north, thus bringing it inside the city, and at the same time constructed the existing conduit to divert the waters from the upper pool and leave it dry. These works must have been executed in haste, and I cannot conceive it possible that they could have been carried into effect in any other part of the environs of Jerusalem, as it would have been a colossal labour to bring a conduit to the western side of the City of David in any other direction, for the hills must have been pierced. It would also have been unnecessary, as the only purpose was to conduct the water from the upper pool to that within the city.

Josephus[877] in speaking of the gate by which the water came into the tower Hippicus, indicates the existence of another conduit. This I suppose to have been a branch of that of Hezekiah. When the foundations of the English church were dug, the remains of a conduit were discovered, which seems to shew that this was the site of one of Herod's palaces, probably that called the Caesareum. It has been thought that this conduit went as far as Moriah, but I believe that I have found its mouth in the street of David, 'in the going down to Silla[878],' close to the Greek convent of S. John on the south, and that it was a sewer.

At the end of the Valley of Siloam is another means of providing for the wants of the city in the matter of water; that is the well _Bir Eyub_, the ancient En-rogel, the boundary between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin[879]. It is situated in a deep narrow cleft of the valley, with precipitous mountains on every side; and formerly furnished water to Jerusalem, as it still continues to do, the inhabitants of Siloam driving a brisk trade during the summer droughts. I have already mentioned this well[880], and now proceed to give a more detailed account of it. In the month of October, 1858, _Bir Eyub_ was perfectly dry, and I availed myself of this event, unfortunate for Jerusalem, to descend into it. I reached the bottom, covered with fine sand, and there was able to examine a small cavity in the rock on the west, mentioned by Mejir ed-Din, from which the water flows in the rainy season. It was then completely dry, but I think that a spring formerly issued from it.

I believe that the well (108 feet deep) is a cavity naturally worn by the constant flow of the water, but that it has afterwards been dressed with a chisel. It is now rectangular in plan, and gradually diminishes from the top to the bottom; the side walls are formed of large blocks in the lower part; as we ascend their size decreases; small holes occur among these at intervals, through which the rock can be seen, and the water runs into the well[881]. The stones recede, one behind the other, as we ascend, and they are perfectly united without any apparent trace of mortar, and must be bolted together with iron clamps or stone tenons to have enabled them to stand firm during so many centuries, and yet to seem likely to stand for many more. I have no doubt that the masonry is of the highest antiquity. The well is supplied by the rains which, sinking into the surrounding mountainous country, descend naturally to this vault at the lowest level. I have convinced myself of this by careful observation at the rainy seasons, and have ascertained that the well did not begin to fill until the rain had fallen for several days, and that the level of the water was not affected, unless the rain was heavy and continuous. I also found that the well did not overflow into the Kidron, unless this rain lasted for several days, and that it ceased when the fine weather returned, and a dry wind sprang up. In 1861 the rain was so heavy that the overflow lasted for fifteen days, but during this time there was very little sunshine in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. The above explanation will, I trust, be satisfactory to all, except the Arabs, who account for the wonder in the following manner[882]: "We all know that the _Haram es-Sherif_ is constantly guarded by sixty thousand angels. Now, by a decree of Heaven, while the heavenly host watch in prayer around the sacred rock (_es-Sakharah_), an equal number of evil spirits groan in the depths of the mountain, condemned to support upon their accursed foreheads the weight of the holy edifice, and of the vast plateau that encircles it. The weight is terrible, but the following circ.u.mstance is marvellous. Every time that a faithful Mohammedan, after due purification, places his foot upon the ground of the _Haram_, the weight of his body increases the burden borne by the demons seventy-fold. If the devotees are numerous, if they frequently go to implore the divine mercy in that favoured spot, the sufferings of the fiends are proportionately increased; they burst into tears of grief and rage. The more ardent is the zeal of the believers, the fuller is the reservoir, wherein, drop by drop, the tears of the enemies of G.o.d are collected. Hence the abundance or the deficiency of the water in _Bir Eyub_ measures the bounty of the Creator to His creatures. It only depends then on our own prayers to have good harvests, and when drought comes, we ought to accuse ourselves of a lack of devotion." M. Saintine thinks that this account, when stripped of its marvels, denotes that all the water-courses in the city flow into the lower part of the _Haram es-Sherif_, and thence are conducted by a conduit into this well. This I cannot admit, because the waters running down the western bank of the Tyropoeon follow the course of that valley, and those which fall on the eastern are caught by the reservoirs constructed for that purpose, and the small quant.i.ty that escapes, falls, as I have already stated[883], into the Kidron Valley, opposite to the Tomb of Absalom.

Let us now pa.s.s on to consider the Fountain of the Virgin, the only useful spring in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, of which I have already given an account[884], as well as of the upper pool of Siloam, which is supplied by the Fountain; but I have not yet described the phenomenon of its intermittence, the quality of its water, and the conduit connecting the two places. S. Jerome, as I have already observed, and the historians of the Crusades, noticed that the flow of the water was not regular, so that the occurrence is by no means novel. Dr Robinson[885]

gives the following account of it: "As we were preparing to measure the basin of the upper fountain and explore the pa.s.sage leading from it, my companion was standing on the lower step near the water, with one foot on the step and the other on a loose stone lying in the basin. All at once he perceived the water coming into his shoe; and supposing the stone had rolled, he withdrew his foot to the step; which however was also now covered with water. This instantly excited our curiosity; and we now perceived the water rapidly bubbling up from under the lower step. In less than five minutes it had risen in the basin nearly or quite a foot; and we could hear it gurgling off through the interior pa.s.sage. In ten minutes more it had ceased to flow; and the water in the basin was again reduced to its former level." I have repeatedly observed the same thing, and for some time was unable to explain it, and therefore questioned the villagers of Siloam, and so learnt, from the more ignorant, the story of the dragon, and from the wiser, that the spring had a flux and reflux like the sea; and they were prepared to instruct me on its periodicity. How I at last discovered the true cause I will relate in speaking of the _Hammam es-Shefa_. Meanwhile I only mention, as an unquestionable fact, that the phenomenon undoubtedly occurs both in the rainy and dry seasons, but that the supply is greater in the former than in the latter.

The water from the fountain flows into the upper pool of Siloam by means of a subterranean conduit, which follows a winding course in the rock, instead of going directly from north to south. In some places it is not more than 2-1/4 feet high; in others 4 or even 5 feet; and in some parts it is still higher, especially towards the Pool of Siloam. Its width in general is about three feet, but near the southern mouth it increases up to four. It has been hewn out of the rock in a very rude manner, so that I am disposed to attribute it to the age of Solomon; especially as it has been made to convey the water of the Fountain to a place where it was more accessible to the inhabitants of the city, and could be collected in the large reservoirs from which the gardens below, the King's Gardens, were irrigated. In the 17th century a monk, by name Julius, explored the whole of the dark damp pa.s.sage. After him the Abbe Desmazures, then an Englishman named Hyde, and Drs Robinson and Smith, and also Tobler. I have traversed it several times, the last occasion being in the month of February 1861; but I cannot advise any one to follow my example, as the constant ruin continually increases the difficulty of the undertaking, and there is always danger of the earth falling in at any moment. This conduit explains why the intermittence is observed in Siloam. The general belief in the country is that the source springs from the lower cavities in Mount Moriah (as the river of Ezekiel's vision[886]). I am of the same opinion, but must reserve this point also for my description of the _Hammam es-Shefa_. The water of the Fountain is limpid and slightly brackish; it contains lime, magnesia, and sulphuric acid: its specific gravity is 1.0035: its temperature is usually from 61.25 to 65.75 Fahrenheit. It is only drunk by the inhabitants of Jerusalem when the supplies in their cisterns fail; however, the peasants of Siloam use it for all purposes. Still it is always a boon to the citizens, as it irrigates the gardens of Siloam, which are rendered wonderfully fruitful, besides supplying the tanners and washerwomen, and cattle of all kinds.

I have already identified the Lower Pool of Siloam with the Pool of Solomon, and stated that it now receives the sewage of the city; but it must have been filled from the Upper Pool, and used to regulate the supplies to the gardens, and increase the volume of the stream of the Kidron.

In the neighbourhood of the city, on the north and north-west, remains of conduits are found, by which perhaps water was brought into the city, but I have not been able to discover whence the supply came; and there are, besides, some reservoirs and cisterns, none of which date from a remote period. The most important work, as regards its size, is the pool at the head of the Kidron valley, which I believe to have been constructed solely to collect and preserve the waters for the wants of those who dwelt in the neighbourhood, and to prevent the streams, flowing from the adjoining hill-sides, from being absorbed in the ground. At one time I thought that a subterranean conduit took the water from the pool into the city; but after the most careful examination of the ground in the vicinity, I am able to declare that no such conduit exists. The reasons which have led me to this conclusion will appear in the following account of my investigations. The people of the country had informed me that at night, when the city was perfectly quiet, the noise of flowing water could be heard beneath the Damascus Gate by any one who placed his ear on the ground. I made the experiment several times, and found it to be the case. When I excavated the ancient North Gate (in the foundations of the present Damascus Gate), as I have already described in the second chapter[887], I descended into the cisterns just on the north of the gate, and repeated the experiment at the bottom of them, and here I perceived more distinctly the gurgling of water, which was still more audible after Said Pasha, Commandant of the garrison of Jerusalem, had emptied these two cisterns of the rubbish that enc.u.mbered them. It must also be observed that the noise is heard louder after rain than at other times. This, therefore, led me to believe that there was a conduit which transported the water into the city, and consequently I many times made careful investigations in the tract of land between the Kidron Pool and the Damascus Gate; but these all failed in producing the desired result; and after levelling the ground, penetrating into cisterns, and removing ruins, I came to the conclusion that its existence was impossible; for, if it had been constructed, it must have run at a great depth underground, and been wholly excavated in the rock. A work of this kind, especially for such a distance, would have been too much for Jewish science; for all the other conduits in Palestine which can be a.s.signed to an early period, if not covered with long slabs, as is common, are not much below the level of the ground, so that there are apertures at intervals to give them light.

Nor is this the only reason against the existence of a conduit; for in examining the sewer in the Tyropoeon valley inside the city, near the Damascus Gate, I obtained permission from the Pasha, when it was repaired, to deepen the excavation, and found no trace of a water-course in the place where it would naturally have run; unless indeed we suppose it to have been made at a greater depth in the rock itself, or to have crossed Bezetha, and come to an end either in Moriah or close to it on the north-west. Consequently I conclude that the gurgling heard at the Damascus Gate proceeds from the sewers in its neighbourhood, which descend from Gareb and Bezetha and unite in the Tyropoeon valley.

I terminate the examination of the waters outside the city by observing that the Pilgrim's Pool[888], on the north (which I have already noticed), is insufficiently supplied from the little valley above it, and anciently discharged its waters into the Pool of Bethesda. I also mention again the water dropping from the rock inside the Royal Caverns, which some, who have only seen it in the rainy season and not in the summer when it is dried up, consider to be a spring. I do not think that these two sources contributed greatly in former time to augment the supply of water to the city.

Before the 12th of June, 1860, no other spring was known in Jerusalem than that which rises at the bottom of the well of the _Hammam es-Shefa_. With regard to this there have been many enquiries as to whence its waters come, by what way they enter Moriah, and whither they go. At the time just mentioned, I discovered the spring on the property of the Daughters of Sion, as I have already described[889]; but about two years previously, in the month of July, I had been called in to examine some water which appeared near Herod's Gate, when the foundations were dug for a large building belonging to Mustafa Bey, which now bears his name. Having premised this, I will state the conclusions at which I have arrived from my investigations at the three places just mentioned, and also give my explanation of the phenomenon of the intermittence of the water in the Fountain of the Virgin.

In the foundation, on the south side of Mustafa Bey's house, at a depth of 22 feet, a quant.i.ty of water had appeared during the night and filled the hole. The master-mason and the owner, the sole architects, believed that it had filtered through from some cistern in the neighbourhood, and therefore set to work to bale it out. When this was done they were very much surprised to see that a thin stream of water, coming from the north-west, continued to fill the place; they therefore deepened the excavation a little, and widened the opening, but they were unable to account for the abundance of the water, which hindered their work. On arriving at the spot I suggested excavating, but the fear of the increased expenditure kept them from agreeing to this; so that, under the circ.u.mstances, I had no other means of ascertaining anything, than examining a number of cisterns which were in the neighbourhood; and after tasting the water in them, and comparing it with that in the hole, I found that the latter was of the same quality as that in the _Hammam es-Shefa_ and the Fountain of the Virgin; and then I began to believe that it came from a spring. The owner of the place consented to suspend the works in this part for eight days, but I could not prevail on him to permit me to make any excavation near the place on the north-west; and during this time the water flowed through a ca.n.a.l which I had constructed for it. After building two ma.s.sive piers on each side of the stream and turning a strong arch over it, the works proceeded; so that the stream ran away to the south, without our having found a solution of the problem; but I have no doubt that careful investigation would have revealed the spring-head close by on the north-west.

The discovery of June 12th, and the ident.i.ty in taste and colour between the water then found and that of which I have spoken, caused me to examine the part of the city between the two points; and though the Arab houses in this district caused many difficulties, I succeeded in ascertaining that in this direction there were cisterns, into which water found its way, similar to that at the spring, and consequently not fit for all the purposes of life. From this I concluded that the two springs must be connected, and the upper supply the lower. But still there was the question, what became of all the water which issued from the spring at the Convent of the Daughters of Sion? At the first moment I was disposed to think that it flowed into the subterranean gallery, in the direction of the north-west corner of the _Haram es-Sherif_; but my observations have brought me to the conclusion that it goes into the well of the _Hammam es-Shefa_, as I will now shew.

The stream flowed naturally to the south, therefore I carefully probed all the western wall on the inside of the gallery to see if the water pa.s.sed along by it; but I found no signs, and so perceived that the conduit from the spring had turned away in another direction. Though the gallery was almost free from water in August, and quite dry in September and October, the stream still flowed abundantly; so that had it run along the gallery, it could not have escaped my observation. Still it might have been objected, that possibly the stream was absorbed and its course concealed by the earth at the bottom of the gallery, so I dammed up the waters until a kind of pool was formed, and then set them free on a sudden; but not a drop appeared in the gallery; so that I thought that they must go into the _Hammam es-Shefa_. I consider the water in this well to be the same as that which supplies the Fountain of the Virgin, for the following reasons. The quality of the water is the same; and though that in the well is rather turbid and that in the Fountain is clear, I attribute this solely to the presence of rubbish in the well, the waters of which are afterwards filtered during their course. The water in the well has for a long time supplied a bath built over it, as it still does. Traditions point it out as ancient, and the Talmud[890]

appears to confirm them, saying, that "the well was excavated by the children of the captivity, and the priests drew water from it by means of a pulley." We may therefore suppose that the Jews used to purify themselves here, before entering the Temple, as the Mohammedans still do on their festival days, before they go into the _Haram es-Sherif_. This bath is the cause of the intermittence of the stream in the Fountain of the Virgin, for at certain periods of the day its keepers use the water for the purposes of the establishment, and consequently not only prevent it from rising high enough to reach the level of the conduit carrying it off to the Kidron Valley, but also empty the well, so that it requires some time to fill again. As this is done twice in every twenty-four hours, the phenomenon of intermittence occurs just as often. This I have proved by repeated observations and trials, and I recommend any one who seeks for a more marvellous cause to follow my example. The quant.i.ty of water in the well is hardly affected by the rains. The dirty water from the bath is carried by a conduit into the sewer in the Tyropoeon valley, and aids in transporting the filth therein outside the city.

Let us now devote a few lines to the pools inside the city, which I have already mentioned. Near the Jaffa Gate, on the north, is a small pool, which many have supposed to be the one in which Bathsheba was bathing when she was seen by David[891]; but I believe the desire of a.s.signing a legend to every spot to be the sole authority for the tradition. I have not been able to examine this reservoir, but the Greeks, to whom it belongs, and who have filled it with earth to prevent its becoming a receptacle of filth, have, with many other of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a.s.sured me that it was very narrow, and that the workmanship in it did not correspond with that of the Jewish era, but with that of Saladin or Solyman; also that it had no connexion with the other ancient water-works.

With regard to the Pool Amygdalon, so often mentioned, I have to remark that many of the cisterns, excavated in the upper city, are filled from it, among which I may especially denote that which commonly bears S.

Helena's name, near the north-east corner of the Church of the Resurrection. On this point there cannot be any doubt, since before the Coptic hospice was erected on the northern side of Amygdalon, a large conduit was visible near its north-east corner, which had been observed by several of the older masons. Besides this, the waters of the pool were certainly directed into the different sewers in the upper city in order to cleanse them; as we may still see in part, for the water which has been used for the bath, is conveyed by a conduit into the sewer in the street of David.

The Cistern of S. Helena has, as I believe, been sometimes called the Cistern of Golgotha, and it has been said that anything light cast into it appeared again in Siloam. I do not believe that this was the case, but if the identification be correct, it might occur in the following manner; that if the water in the cistern rose above a certain height it might escape by a waste pipe, on the south-east of the cistern, into the central sewer in the Tyropoeon, and thus, when there was a large surplus of water, might easily descend to Siloam, bearing any floating substance along with it. There are many other cisterns in the neighbourhood of the Holy Sepulchre which I have examined, but these do not help me to an explanation of the matter, as their waste pipes are but small.

I return to the Pool of Bethesda[892], to direct attention to the Herodian masonry, which was certainly either built or repaired at the erection of the Antonia. The stones which rest on the levelled rock are perfectly united together in the following way: on the outer surface of one stone is a rectangular mortise, into which fits a corresponding tenon, left projecting from a stone with all its faces regularly squared, and of somewhat smaller size than the first mentioned. Thus, when a row[893] was finished the outer stones were about two inches apart, and so the whole wall resembled a chess-board, all the squares being separated by channels running horizontally and vertically. These intervals were filled with very strong masonry; and in order that the water might not possibly find its way through the joinings of the inner stones, after the surface was thus made level, the whole was covered with a strong cement. The position of the pool shews that it was not only formed for the service of the Temple, but also for its defence.

This work, which could so easily be made again fit for use, is, on the contrary, rapidly falling to ruin, being utterly neglected, like all the other works of antiquity.

There were some other pools inside the city--for example one, where the barrack of the _Haram_[894] now stands; another, on the south of the property of the Armenian Convent, which I myself have examined; but of these every trace has now disappeared; and I only mention them to shew how much better the city was supplied with water in former times by means of proper contrivances.

I have already explained[895] how the inhabitants now provide themselves with water, and will only add that, of the 992 cisterns in Jerusalem and its vicinity, the greater number are ancient, and are excavated in the rock. In them the water would keep excellently, if proper attention were paid to them, so that the city would never fall short; but they too are neglected; and consequently there is in many years a want of water, a great quant.i.ty of which is either absorbed by the ground and lost, or runs into the sewers, which are in even worse repair, and, or lastly, floods the streets, to the inconvenience of pa.s.sengers, and the injury of the public health.

I conclude by remarking that, although Jerusalem is situated in a position where limestone rocks abound, and where springs of drinkable water are not to be found, (there being but one which could be used, even in extremity,) the city has never suffered from thirst in all the numerous sieges which it has undergone. The besiegers, however, have almost always been reduced to great straits from this cause; for example, the armies of Pompeius, of Antiochus Eupator, and of the Crusaders. Josephus, indeed, says that the Roman troops under t.i.tus did not want water, but this is in a speech addressed to his fellow-citizens, when he is exhorting them to submit in order to avoid a more miserable fate; and he brings forward this unwonted circ.u.mstance as a sign that heaven had abandoned them, just as had happened when the city was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar. Still great distress, according to Dio Ca.s.sius[896], did prevail among the Roman army. The inhabitants, however, never felt any such want; their miseries always arose from hunger; and William of Tyre[897] expressly states that when the army of G.o.dfrey of Bouillon entered Jerusalem they found plenty of water. From the earliest period the supply appears to have been well maintained; and it is to be hoped that some person or other will before long restore the city to its former condition; and by repairing the ancient water-works render it no longer dependent on the rains. Woe betide Jerusalem if showers should fail during two years in succession!

FOOTNOTES:

[860] Eccl. ii. 4, 6.

[861] Ant. VIII. 7, -- 3.

[862] Plate X.