DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0132
JERUSALEM.
107
between the beds of limestone ; even in the driest summer the percolation gives three or four
buckets of water between sunset and sunrise. The second class, of which the " great sea " in
front of the Mosque el Aksa is a good type, consists of great tanks, from forty to sixty feet
deep, which have been formed by making small openings in the hard overlying beds of lime-
stone ("missae"), and then excavating the softer " malaki" beneath. The roofs are of rock,
generally strong enough to stand by themselves, but in the larger cisterns supported by rough
pillars left for the purpose. The labour ex-
pended in mining out the underlying rock and
bringing it to the surface through small open-
ings must have been very great, and it seems
natural to suppose that these cisterns were
made before the use of the arch for covering
large openings became general. The.third class
comprises those in which the rock has been cut
perpendicularly downwards and a plain covering arch thrown over the excavation. Such
cisterns are found near the Golden Gate, beneath the platform of the Dome of the Rock, and
in various places in the city. The cisterns of the second and third class were formerly supplied
by aqueducts, now they have to depend on surface drainage. The fourth description of cistern
is that which has been built in the rubbish of the city, and is of modern date. Cisterns of this
107
between the beds of limestone ; even in the driest summer the percolation gives three or four
buckets of water between sunset and sunrise. The second class, of which the " great sea " in
front of the Mosque el Aksa is a good type, consists of great tanks, from forty to sixty feet
deep, which have been formed by making small openings in the hard overlying beds of lime-
stone ("missae"), and then excavating the softer " malaki" beneath. The roofs are of rock,
generally strong enough to stand by themselves, but in the larger cisterns supported by rough
pillars left for the purpose. The labour ex-
pended in mining out the underlying rock and
bringing it to the surface through small open-
ings must have been very great, and it seems
natural to suppose that these cisterns were
made before the use of the arch for covering
large openings became general. The.third class
comprises those in which the rock has been cut
perpendicularly downwards and a plain covering arch thrown over the excavation. Such
cisterns are found near the Golden Gate, beneath the platform of the Dome of the Rock, and
in various places in the city. The cisterns of the second and third class were formerly supplied
by aqueducts, now they have to depend on surface drainage. The fourth description of cistern
is that which has been built in the rubbish of the city, and is of modern date. Cisterns of this