DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0141
n6
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
springs in the side valleys which contributed to the supply, but the principal source was the
flood water. This mode of collecting water is very common in Persia and Afghanistan, where
the underground conduit is called a kariz ; but it is doubtful whether another instance could
be found of a tunnel nearly five miles long cut in hard limestone. About six hundred yards
below the dam the conduit enters another tunnel, seventeen hundred feet long, which at one
point is one hundred and fifteen feet below the surface of the ground. Eleven shafts were
sunk to aid the work of excavation, and the passage is in places fourteen feet high. After
passing through the tunnel the conduit winds round the hill to the valley in which the Pools of
Solomon lie. It then crosses that valley above the upper pool in an underground channel
which tapped the Sealed Fountain, and formerly brought it, with its own waters, to the high
level in Jerusalem. After leaving the pools the aqueduct at first runs along the side of the
Valley of Urtas, but at a point not far from Bethlehem it enters a tank, and thence, when
perfect, carried the water over the valley near Rachel's Tomb by means of an inverted
syphon. This syphon was about two miles long, and consisted of perforated blocks of stone
set in a mass of rubble masonry some three feet thick all round. The tube is fifteen inches in
diameter, and the joints, which appear to have been ground or turned, are put together with
an extremely hard cement. The whole work is a remarkable specimen of ancient engineering
skill, and the labour bestowed on the details excites the admiration of all travellers. This
portion is known amongst the native peasantry as the " Aqueduct of the Unbelievers." On
approaching Jerusalem all trace of the conduit is lost. It has evidently been destroyed
during one of the many sieges, and the point at which it entered the city is still uncertain.
The most interesting feature, however, is that the supply was brought to Jerusalem at an
elevation of twenty feet over the sill of the Jaffa Gate, and that the conduit would have been
able to deliver water to the highest part of the city, and so provide an adequate supply for
the whole population. Some persons have supposed that the high-level aqueduct supplied the
Birket Mamilla and thence the Citadel ; but it seems not improbable that the conduit wound
round the head of the Valley of Hinnom and entered the city at the north-west angle, where
the Tower Psephinus stood. This view is supported by the discovery some years ago of a
conduit within the Russian consular enclosure, which was afterwards found in some ground
belonging to M. Bergheim without the city, and beneath the house of the Latin Patriarch
within the walls. The direction of this conduit was towards the tower which most nearly
agrees with the Hippicus of Josephus, that at the Jaffa Gate; and thence the water was in
all probability carried onward to the Temple enclosure by the conduit which was discovered
far below the level of the present surface when the English church and vicarage were built.
The date of the high-level aqueduct has been the subject of some discussion, without any very
satisfactory result. There is, however, a passage in Josephus which seems to throw some
light on the question. In describing Herod's Palace, which occupied the site of the present
Citadel, the historian states that " there were, moreover, several groves of trees and long
walks through them, with deep canals and cisterns, that in several parts were filled with brazen
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
springs in the side valleys which contributed to the supply, but the principal source was the
flood water. This mode of collecting water is very common in Persia and Afghanistan, where
the underground conduit is called a kariz ; but it is doubtful whether another instance could
be found of a tunnel nearly five miles long cut in hard limestone. About six hundred yards
below the dam the conduit enters another tunnel, seventeen hundred feet long, which at one
point is one hundred and fifteen feet below the surface of the ground. Eleven shafts were
sunk to aid the work of excavation, and the passage is in places fourteen feet high. After
passing through the tunnel the conduit winds round the hill to the valley in which the Pools of
Solomon lie. It then crosses that valley above the upper pool in an underground channel
which tapped the Sealed Fountain, and formerly brought it, with its own waters, to the high
level in Jerusalem. After leaving the pools the aqueduct at first runs along the side of the
Valley of Urtas, but at a point not far from Bethlehem it enters a tank, and thence, when
perfect, carried the water over the valley near Rachel's Tomb by means of an inverted
syphon. This syphon was about two miles long, and consisted of perforated blocks of stone
set in a mass of rubble masonry some three feet thick all round. The tube is fifteen inches in
diameter, and the joints, which appear to have been ground or turned, are put together with
an extremely hard cement. The whole work is a remarkable specimen of ancient engineering
skill, and the labour bestowed on the details excites the admiration of all travellers. This
portion is known amongst the native peasantry as the " Aqueduct of the Unbelievers." On
approaching Jerusalem all trace of the conduit is lost. It has evidently been destroyed
during one of the many sieges, and the point at which it entered the city is still uncertain.
The most interesting feature, however, is that the supply was brought to Jerusalem at an
elevation of twenty feet over the sill of the Jaffa Gate, and that the conduit would have been
able to deliver water to the highest part of the city, and so provide an adequate supply for
the whole population. Some persons have supposed that the high-level aqueduct supplied the
Birket Mamilla and thence the Citadel ; but it seems not improbable that the conduit wound
round the head of the Valley of Hinnom and entered the city at the north-west angle, where
the Tower Psephinus stood. This view is supported by the discovery some years ago of a
conduit within the Russian consular enclosure, which was afterwards found in some ground
belonging to M. Bergheim without the city, and beneath the house of the Latin Patriarch
within the walls. The direction of this conduit was towards the tower which most nearly
agrees with the Hippicus of Josephus, that at the Jaffa Gate; and thence the water was in
all probability carried onward to the Temple enclosure by the conduit which was discovered
far below the level of the present surface when the English church and vicarage were built.
The date of the high-level aqueduct has been the subject of some discussion, without any very
satisfactory result. There is, however, a passage in Josephus which seems to throw some
light on the question. In describing Herod's Palace, which occupied the site of the present
Citadel, the historian states that " there were, moreover, several groves of trees and long
walks through them, with deep canals and cisterns, that in several parts were filled with brazen