DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0139
ii4
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
the Haram esh Sherif are in such a bad state of repair and so choked with rubbish that it
is impossible to trace them without excavation, but sufficient is known of them to show that
there was at one time an elaborate system of waterworks, which provided for the delivery
and overflow of the water brought by the low-level aqueduct. The waste overflow appears to
have passed through one of the passages discovered by Mons. de Saulcy beneath the Triple
Gate into the main drain of the eastern hill,
which discharged itself into the Kedron
Valley a little below the Fountain of the
Virgin. As a large supply of water must
have been necessary immediately upon the
institution of the Temple services, and as
there was not sufficient at Jerusalem itself,
there seems no reason for doubting the
current tradition that this aqueduct, and
perhaps one or more of the pools, were the
work of Solomon.
The works connected with the second
source of water supply are, perhaps, the most
interesting, on account of the great skill shown in their construction. The conduit has been
called the " high-level aqueduct," from the fact that it must have delivered water at a level
more than one hundred feet above that of the low-level aqueduct, and sufficiently high to
supply the western hill of Jerusalem. In a valley called Wady Byar, to the south of
CAVES IN THE VALLEY OF HINNOM, EAST OF ACELDAMA.
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
the Haram esh Sherif are in such a bad state of repair and so choked with rubbish that it
is impossible to trace them without excavation, but sufficient is known of them to show that
there was at one time an elaborate system of waterworks, which provided for the delivery
and overflow of the water brought by the low-level aqueduct. The waste overflow appears to
have passed through one of the passages discovered by Mons. de Saulcy beneath the Triple
Gate into the main drain of the eastern hill,
which discharged itself into the Kedron
Valley a little below the Fountain of the
Virgin. As a large supply of water must
have been necessary immediately upon the
institution of the Temple services, and as
there was not sufficient at Jerusalem itself,
there seems no reason for doubting the
current tradition that this aqueduct, and
perhaps one or more of the pools, were the
work of Solomon.
The works connected with the second
source of water supply are, perhaps, the most
interesting, on account of the great skill shown in their construction. The conduit has been
called the " high-level aqueduct," from the fact that it must have delivered water at a level
more than one hundred feet above that of the low-level aqueduct, and sufficiently high to
supply the western hill of Jerusalem. In a valley called Wady Byar, to the south of
CAVES IN THE VALLEY OF HINNOM, EAST OF ACELDAMA.