THE WATER SUPPLY OF JERUSALEM. 19 



Exploration Fund, is probably the Pool of Siloam of the 

 Bible. It is now a small open tank bnilt in the rubbish tliat 

 fills the old pool. The lower pool, Avhich lias not been 

 completely explored, is apparently the reservoir between the 

 two Avails mentioned in Isaiah xxii, 11. As in the case of 

 the Birket Israil, its dam formed part of the defences of the 

 city. It is now used as an open cess-pit for the reception 

 of the drainag-e of the city. There is some reason to believe 

 that, higher up the valley, between the Jirst and second walls, 

 there was a fourth pool. 



In the short " Palace Ravine " is Hezekiah's Pool, 

 apparently the "Pool Amygdalon"' of Josephus (B.J., y, 11, 

 § 4), which receives its water by gravitation from the Birket 

 Mamilla near the head of the Valley of Hinnom. The 

 latter reservoir appears to be the " Serpent's Pool " of 

 Josephus {B.J., V, 3, § 2), and is supposed by some authorities 

 to be the " Upper Pool " mentioned by Isaiah. Much lower 

 down the Valley of Hinnom is the Birket es-Sultan, con- 

 structed or restored by German knights in 1170, and repaired 

 by Sultan Suleiman in the sixteenth century. 



There were thus ample means for storing Avater in and 

 near Jerusalem, but, as the town grevv^, the supply from the 

 rainfall Avas insufficient and Avater had to be brought from 

 distant springs by conduits or aqueducts. 



Conduits. — The two principal conduits haA^e been dis- 

 tinguished as the high- and loA\'-level aqueducts. The 

 low-level aqueduct conA'eyed water from three pools in Wady 

 XJrtas, about seven miles south-Avest of .Jerusalem, to the 

 Temple enclosure on the eastern spur — ^]\Iount j\Ioriah. 

 The reservoirs are noAv known as " Solomon's Pools," and 

 tradition, not Avithout reason, ascribes the construction of 

 one or more of them, and of the conduit which carried 

 their waters to Jerusalem, to Solomon. The pools act as. 

 storage reserA^oirs for the Avaters of 'Ain es-SAlih — a fine 

 spring better known as " the Sealed Fountain," and of flood 

 AA^ater after AA'inter rains. The conduit starts from the^ 

 LoAver Pool, and almost at once receives a stream from 

 'Ain 'Atan Avhich rises in a kariz, or tunnel, in the vicinity. 

 The aqueduct has a length of about thirteen miles, and 

 passes through the hill on Avhich Bethlehem stands by a 

 tunnel. A second tunnel jiearer Jerusalem has been turned' 

 into a tank in connection with the new AvaterAvorks (see p. 1;^).. 

 The conduit crossed the Valley of Hinnom above the Birket 

 es-Sultan, Avhich it probably filled, and, after Avinding round 



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