DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0068
JERUSALEM.
45
the hill on the north has been traced for some distance along the line of the Via Dolorosa,
and it can be seen in two vaulted
passages or souterrains which
lie beneath the street. At the
end of one of the souterrains
there is a rock-hewn aqueduct,
from twenty to thirty feet high,
which brought water from the
north. It is an old and important
work, but no one has yet been
able to find the source from which
it derived its supply of water.
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 hun-
dred 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 por-
tions of its course it assumes
the character of a deep ravine,
and that its bed is no less than
one hundred and forty feet
below the surface of the Temple
platform. 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
r . • i • STREET OF THE GATE OF THE CHAIN.
OI tile rUDDlSn, WnlCn rises tO a a narrow picturesque street, with projecting lattice-work windows of many kinds.
45
the hill on the north has been traced for some distance along the line of the Via Dolorosa,
and it can be seen in two vaulted
passages or souterrains which
lie beneath the street. At the
end of one of the souterrains
there is a rock-hewn aqueduct,
from twenty to thirty feet high,
which brought water from the
north. It is an old and important
work, but no one has yet been
able to find the source from which
it derived its supply of water.
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 hun-
dred 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 por-
tions of its course it assumes
the character of a deep ravine,
and that its bed is no less than
one hundred and forty feet
below the surface of the Temple
platform. 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
r . • i • STREET OF THE GATE OF THE CHAIN.
OI tile rUDDlSn, WnlCn rises tO a a narrow picturesque street, with projecting lattice-work windows of many kinds.