20 MAJOR-GEN. SIR C. W. WILSON^ R.E., F.R.S., ON 



the western spur of the plateau, passed over the causeway 

 and Wilson's Arch to the Temple enclosure. It is this 

 conduit, which only supplied the lower quarters of the city 

 and the eastern spur, that has from time to time been repaired. 

 At a later date the supply of the low-level aqueduct was 

 increased by the construction of a reservoir in the Wady 

 'Arriib, near the road to Hebron, for the collection of spring: 

 and flood-water. This pool was connected with the Wady 

 Urtas system by a conduit 28 miles long, which is possibly 

 that attributed by Josephus (Ant., xviii, 3, § 2 ; B.J., ii, 9, 

 § 4) to Pilate. It is, however, doubtful whether Pilate did 

 more than restore an existinjf^ conduit. 



The starting point of the high-level aqueduct is Blr 

 ed-Darijfi at the head of a remarkable hariz, or tunnel, about 

 four miles long, in Wady Biar. This tunnel, reached from 

 the surface by numerous shafts, tapped several small springs, 

 and, in winter, collected much flood-water. After leaving 

 the tunnel the conduit carried the water to a pool in which 

 the solid matter settled, and then, passing through a tunnel 

 1,700 feet long, crossed the Urtiis Valley alcove the Upper 

 Pool. Here, where its level is 150 feet above that of the 

 low-level aqueduct, the conduit received the waters of the 

 " Sealed Fountain,'' and delivered them at Jerusalem, at a 

 level 20 feet above that of the Jaffa Gate. The high-level 

 aqueduct was thus able to supply the western spur, south of 

 the Jaffa Gate, and all that quarter in Avhich the Church of 

 the Holy Sepulchre now stands ; it probably also fed the 

 Birket Mamilla. 



An interesting feature of this aqueduct is the inverted 

 syphon of perforated limestone blocks, forming a stone tube 

 15 inches in diameter, by which it crosses the valley near 

 Rachel's tomb. On several of the blocks Latin inscriptions 

 of the time of Severus (a.d. 11)5), in nearly ever}' case the 

 names of centurions, have recently been found; and this has 

 led some authorities to ascribe the construction of the 

 aqueduct to that period. The objections to this view are : — ■ 

 That the constant supply of running water implied by 

 Josephus' description (B.J., v, 4, § 4) of the fountains and 

 streams in the gardens of Herod's palace could only have 

 been furnished by a high-level aqueduct from perennial 

 springs ; that similar stone syphons at Patara, Laodicea, and 

 other places in Asia" Minor are of much earlier date than 

 Severus, and possibly of Greek origin; and that at the 

 close of the second century A.D. the level would have been 



