The houses that have been built in Jerusalem have been demolished, over the years, and the rubble has been levelled out, I suppose making the ground about 6" (15cm) higher. Over the centuries, that has made the City about 10ft (3m) higher than it was in Jesus’ day. If we want to find out what Jerusalem was like in Jesus’ day we will have to dig down past this 10ft of rubble.

The ‘Palestine Exploration Fund’ published in 1866, a series of findings, entitled ‘Our work in Palestine’. In one of them, Major Condor, gives this….

These were holes cut out of the rock to store water from the roofs. They were shaped like large wine bottles, with a wide base, and became widely used after 1500 BC. They could be up to 25ft (8m) deep.

W.M. Thompson, a 19^th Century traveller says "The best cisterns, even those cut out of solid rock, are strangely liable to crack, the water has the colour of weak soap suds and the taste of earth or the stable, is full of worms, and in the hour of greatest need, utterly fails. I have never been able to tolerate this cistern water, except in Jerusalem where they are kept with scrupulous care, and filled from roofs both clean and hard."

Yet they were indispensable, particularly in the time of siege. They had to be re-lined each year, and some owners kept fish in them to keep down the worms. Josephus says that ‘the sites of old cities were honeycombed with them, most houses having one, and some having four or five.’

Most of the other early workings were beneath this depth, to avoid them.

As you would expect, many cisterns were only used for washing, drinking water being brought from the well, and stored on large covered pots by the door.

C.Lang Neil in 1890 says "The city is now, solely dependant upon these cisterns and wells for water. In the past ages there were aqueducts through which the precious stream flowed from the old time reservoirs in the Bethlehem Hills (Solomon’s Pools). The remains of these may still be seen, but all are crumbled into ruin. Fountains which still exhibit the skill of a famous builder, stand in silent protest against the stones and dirt that find a resting place in their hollow basins. The large pools which were formerly of immense use to the population, now like the rest of the work of careful rulers, are suffering from years of neglect. The wants of the Muslim population are well supplied. The cisterns in the harem area are capable of holding 10 million gallons of water, enough for the whole city, but only Mohammedans are allowed to use it.

The cisterns in the Harem were explored by the engineers of the ‘Palestine Exploration Fund’ and were found to be of three kinds.

1. The small rock cut cisterns of great antiquity, with a narrow neck leading to a round bulb-like bottom.
2. Large excavations made out of the natural rock, found in the southern part of the Harem and supplied originally from Solomon’s Pools, but now by surface drainage, dependant entirely on the rainfall. The fountain and laver – El-Cas- in front of the Mosque el Aksa, now of little use, received its water from the cistern below; the Bahr el Khebir is one of these large cisterns; forty feet in height, containing an immense quantity of water. This class of cistern, like the first mentioned is of remote antiquity.
3. The third class ids the most modern, though dating possibly from the Herodian Period. They are cut out of solid rock and arched over with masonry.

1. The Spring of Gihon.
2. Siloam Tunnel (also called Hezekiah’s Tunnel)
3. Upper Pool (Birket Silwan)
4. Lower or Old Pool (Birket el-Hamra)

Siloam Tunnel (also known as Hezekiah’s Tunnel)

In 1867 Captain Charles Warren also explored the tunnel.

At least two other conduits were built from the Spring of Gihon into Jerusalem before the Siloam Tunnel, but none of the earlier ones were adequately protected against enemy attack.

‘Our work in Palestine’ (1875) The Palestine Exploration Fund gives this……

"The word BEER, is, in its technical meaning, an underground rain-water cistern. And must be so understood in most of the passages where it occurs in the Bible. Living Water, (or springs), occur frequently in the sands of the Maritime Plains but are very rare in any part of the mountain districts, (which includes Jerusalem). Several ‘Beers’ exist in Jerusalem, which receive rain water like the rest but are also periodically replenished from below. About five or six buckets of the water come in between sunrise and sunset. This is supplied by the infiltration from the limestone in which they are hewn out.’

In Palestine Explored (1907), James Neil gives this.

"One of the most constant features of the land is the Well or Beer. (Arabic for ‘well’ is beair – pronounced beer), which as no rain falls for six months together, and springs and streams are, in many parts, comparatively rare, becomes an essential adjunct to every house. In these large underground structures rainwater is collected from surface structures and stored for use during the year. The Moabite Stone records an act passed by Mesha, king of Moab, (in the days of Jehosaphat), directing every man to make a beer or rain cistern in his dwelling. James Neil goes on to say that such a law would not be needed in Israel, for they abound everywhere, and many of them, in fine preservation, mark the sites of very ancient cities, where no other structure remains. There are no less than thirty to be found within the precincts of the Temple area at Jerusalem. Some of these are of vast size built on piers and arched like the crypt of a church. They are specially numerous in the fine olive grove to the North of the present city. This spot must have once been enclosed within the walls. Here they are in such a ruinous condition, apparently from extreme age, that they now form a series of dangerous pitfalls.

In addition to these wells there are many immense artificial pools, or rain-water reservoirs, which are often referred to in the Bible, and which no less than nine may be traced in and around Jerusalem itself. One of these,

The Birket Mamilla,, (or pool of Mamilla), at the head of the valley of the son of Hinnom, on the South West side of the City is 291ft long by 192ft wide.

The Birket es Sultan, just below the scarped fortress of Jebus, at the South West angle of the ancient wall is 510ft long by 210ft wide.

The Birket Yisrael, supposed by some to be the Pool of Bethesda, lying in the deep cutting along the North of the Temple area has a length of 360ft by a breadth of 130ft and a depth of 50ft.

The Birket Hammam, (or Pool of the Bath), which is situated at a little distance within the wall on the West side of the City and which is supplied from an aqueduct from the Mammilla Pool is 250ft long by 150ft broad.

The Arabic ‘Birket’ would appear to be the same as the Hebrew ‘Beraikah’, translated ‘Pool’, and this word is probably dreived from the work ‘Barak’ – to kneel.(the place where the camels are made to kneel down). Special Pools. Or ‘Beraikoth’ are mentioned in the Bible at

Gibeon (2 Sam 2v13)

Hebron (2 Sam 4v12) and

Samaria (1 Kings 22v38)

At Jerusalem the following pools are mentioned.

The Upper Pool (2 Kings 18v17)

The Lower Pool (Isaiah 22v9)

The Kings Pool (Nehemiah 2v14)

The Pool of Siloah or Siloam (Nehemiah 3v15 and John 9v7)

The Old Pool (Isaiah 22v11) and

The Pool of Bethesda (John 5v2)

In connection with Pools such as these, and also in connection with many important springs, there is throughout the country an extensive system of irrigation, by means of aqueducts, some of which are still in use, while many more lie in ruins. Josephus mentions an aqueduct 25 miles long made by Pontius Pilate in order to supply Jerusalem with water. To all these cisterns, reservoirs and aqueducts, whether cut in the rock or built of rough masonry, one thing is common – To render them perfectly watertight a peculiar cement has to be used. It is composed partly of lime and partly of a large admixture of what is called in Arabic ‘Hhomrah’. This ‘Hhomrah’ is nothing else than broken pottery of every description, ground down generally into very small pieces, and sometimes into powder. The cement thus made answers excellently the purpose for which it is employed. Every year it grows harder until in thecase of those wells where it is presumably many hundreds of years old, it is as firm as the rock to which it adheres. Hhomrah is consequently an article of commerce throughout the country.

The supply of water to Jerusalem by wells, reservoirs and aqueducts accounts for the fact that, in its various sieges, while the foe without suffered from want of water, those within the walls always had enough. This gives a beautiful figure of the Church which has no visible means of water supply but is like a ‘Tree that is planted by the banks of a river’.

The manufacture of ‘Hhomrah’ may be seen now every Autumn in the valley of the
Son of Hinnom. Here, advantage has been taken of the natural formation of the land to construct an ancient pool that fills up the whole width of the rocky bed. It is called on the maps ‘The Lower Pool of Gihon’. The Arabic name is Birket as Sultan (The Sultan’s Pool). It consists of two or three different levels formed by terraces of rock. Upon the upper terrace, on the side adjoining the city, fallahheen are sitting on the ground in front of small brown, and parti-coloured heaps. They have under their hands a huge stone, or rather rough piece of rock, slightly rounded, about a foot to a foot and a half in diameter .which they push backwards and forwards over the small mounds of the materials placed before them. These mounds consist of broken pottery, which they have purchased in the city or picked up from the debris outside. Here we may see the simple process of ‘Shivering’ or crushing the potters vessel. There are handles, mouths, lips, spouts, rich glazed sherds of brightness and gay vessels of the upper class with broken earthen bottles of every size.

The shivering of the potter’s vessel

That is broken in pieces unsparingly,

So that in its breaking in pieces there shall

Not be found a sherd

To snatch fire from the burning

Or to take water out of a pit.

(Isaiah 30v14)

The Pool of Siloam (Known as The Pool of Hezekiak before 1940)

The most important pool in the city is the one identified as the Pool of Hezekiah on account of its being connected by an aqueduct with the Birket Mamilla – the large pool at the upper end of the valley of Hinnom. If this large reservoir on the outskirts of the city is the "upper watercourse of Gihon" of Chron 32v30, there is some reason for the supposed identification, but the work of recent years has proved the contrary.

It is known, locally, as Hammam el Batrak, ( The pool of the Patriarchs.). It is 240ft long and 140 ft wide, cut out of solid rock and floored with cement. After the winter rains it is full of water, but the water disappears before the summer is over. The pool is generally thought to be the ‘Pool Amygdalon’, mentioned by Josephus.

This pool is well known from its association with one of the many miracles of our Saviour. (John 9v7). At present there are two close together in the Kedron Valley, or rather in the Tyropean Valley running into it. The lower contains the water, but the upper is more important. The pool of Siloam, is in reality, the Pool of Hezekiah, and was once inside his city, and also in the City of David, which was situated on the hill above it, of lower elevation than mount Moriah.

Most people walk right by without a glance into the garden with no idea of what lies under the massive 400-year-olt Turkish wall surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem. Usually, they saunter down the street of the Paratroopers, heading for the Arab shops of East Jerusalem or for the Rockefeller Museum.

If they should choose to walk through the garden, they would come to one of the most intriguing sites in Jerusalem -- King Solomon's Quarries.

For a small admission price the visitor will be swallowed up in the mouth of a huge cave that seems to yawn upon a chasm extending deep into the bowels of Jerusalem's limestone. After crossing the threshold the visitor is alone in a vast world of silence, marred only by the sound of dripping water.

The municipality of Jerusalem has taken care that the pathways along the 1,000-foot deep cave are clearly lighted. There is assurance that no skeletons will be found, like the one uncovered 100 years ago when the cave was rediscovered. It is conjectured that the bones were those of someone who lost his candle, fell and broke his neck.

In 1854 an American physician then living in Jerusalem accidentally discovered the grotto entrance while he and his son were following their dog through a hole in the City wall. As it turned out, one hole led to another and thus Dr. Barclay became the first modern explorer of the cave.

In hebrew the cave is named after Zedekiah. According to accounts in both the Books of Kings and of Jeremiah, Zedekiah, the last king of Judea, fled from the pursuing Assyrians through the cave. Emerging on the Plains of Jericho, he was captured by the enemy. It is possible that the Bible reference is to another, now unknown, passage. There is no present evidence that the cave extends further than the northern wall area to a place approximately under the Temple Mount.

A close examination of the cave reveals three types of limestone: the white (or royal, as it is called in Hebrew), the sweet or soft, and the iron-bearing red variety. All of these stones to this day form the characteristic building material of the Holy City and its burgeoning suburbs. The iron-laden red type, the hardest of the three, by itself and combined with the others, gives that special pink hue to many of Jerusalem's buildings and homes as they catch the morning rays bouncing off the Red Sea and the mountains of Moab or the slanting rays of sunset on clear summer evenings.