Water for Jerusalem •••

YITZCHAK DINUR WATER FOR JERUSALEM ••• Landlocked Jerusalem has been vulnerable to water siege from time immemorial, and its history has been shaped by this vulnerability. Through the work of the University's archaeologists and geographers, SCOPUS looks at the water engineering feats of ancient times and the no less impressive means used today to ensure a dependable water supply to the capital city ETERAN JERUSALEMITES drought years, but the main supply stem from its location on the north have a well-exercised repertoire depended on cisterns (of which south ridge of the Judean Mountains, V of folklore about the city's there were almost a thousand) which at a point close to the dividing line water shortage in the Israel War of collected the rain water from the roofs between the desert and sown land, Independence ("No water to wash, of buildings. Because there was no where the rain is variable and there is little to drink. We had to save every proper sewerage, pollution of the only one spring close by, The Gusher drop."), which is trotted out whenever drinking water brought about a severe (in Hebrew, the Gihon). This location a main breaks, or there is a drought, plague in 1864 that led to the city is an important strategic point, where or some other such crisis occurs. being placed in quarantine for the north-south road connecting Sure enough, during the Gulf War, four months. Hebron, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and the inhabitants of Jerusalem were During the early years of the British Nablus is crossed by the road from reminded how water was conserved in Mandate, the same situation prevailed, the coast to the Jordan Valley. 1948 and might have to be conserved and in 1928 water had to be brought The earliest, Canaanite, city was again, if.... But, thankfully, there was up from the coast by train, despite the located on the eastern slopes of two no need. As happens with crises, installation of a pumping station at hills outside the present Old City, and that recent 1948 water crisis has Solomon's Pools beyond Bethlehem the spring issued from the bottom of wiped away memories of earlier water in 1920, to send the precious liquid one of these. A stepped curved tunnel shortages in Jerusalem, of which through a pipeline which had been was dug inside the slope down to the there were many. repaired two years previously. Only in spring for safe access to water even in In the 18th and 19th centuries, with 1935 was Jerusalem's dependence on times of siege. To no avail, it seems. the decline of Ottoman administration rainfall and other unreliable sources When King David decided to conquer in Palestine and the breakdown of finally solved by a pipeline from the aqueducts and water pipes from Rosh Ha-Ayin springs near the coast, aq-ue-duct n 1 a: a conduit for water, earlier times, water was brought by which concurrently also cheapened its esp: one for carrying a large quantity animals and carriers in filthy animal cost considerably. of flowing water (Webstet) skins from nearby springs during The city's perennial water problems 18 YESTERDAY AND TODAY Vaulted aqueduct built by the Tenth Roman Legion, found in Jerusalem's Talpiot quarter 19 1 Warren's Shaft in the City of David, Jerusalem's first water system 2 Water tunnel running beneath a fortress wall in the ninth century BCE 3 Residents of Jerusalem's Mea She'arlm quarter still walk past this old cistern every day 4 Jerusalemites lining up for water rations, 1948 5 Rooftop tanks still supply water to apartment dwellers in Jerusalem today 6 A pumping station with emergency diesel generator in Jerusalem's Ramot quarter the city, then called Jebus, he and his gently sloping tunnel, which is 533 an aqueduct for ritual immersion. It men gained entrance up this tunnel , meters long though the straight-line would seem that Herod, among his according to the Book of Samuel II distance is only 320 meters, enabled widespread building activities, also 5:8, and surprised the inhabitants from the full exploitation of the spring by had aqueducts constructed , and it within the walls. channel ing all the waters to a single is known that the Roman Procurator The Gihon Spring , which gushes large reservoir, the Siloam Pool near Pontius Pilate's endeavors to divert intermittently for about 40 minutes the present-day Arab village of Silwan , Temple funds for constructing an at a time, with breaks of six to eight providing absolute control over the aqueduct were the cause of serious hours between these activities, was precious liquid. The City of David rioting. This same aqueduct was later the focus of all ancient water systems Expedition's results do not enable the destroyed by Jewish extremists during of Jerusalem, of which there are three: dating of the Siloam Channel, though the First Revolt against the Romans Warren's Shaft, the earliest, which it seems clear that Warren's Shaft, in 70 C.E. contains the above stepped curved the city's first water system, was built A survey of ancient Jerusalem tunnel and is named after Charles some little time before Jebus became aqueducts was carried out in 1969 by Warren who discovered it in 1876; the the City of David. Prof. Amihai Mazar of the University's Siloam Channel/Tunnel which led The well-arranged water system, Institute of Archaeology together the waters to the Siloam Pool ; and based on Hezekiah's Tunnel , served with Yehoshua Cohen, founder of Hezekiah's Tunnel. The last, which Jerusalem faithfully until the city the Kfar Etzion Field School. This replaced the earlier channel after it fell was destroyed by the Babylonians survey included an examination of into disuse, and whose construction in 587 B.C. E. After the Return from the springs tapped by the aqueducts, is described in the Bible in several Babylon 50 years later, Jerusalem and mapping and description of their places, is still open today and serves its infrastructure, including city walls, as a locale for exciting (though wet streets and main water supply, were and chilly) walks. slowly rebuilt. The so-called Letter of The University's excavations of the Aristeas, written in the second century •-------------------'In Second Temple times · City of David , led by the late Prof. B.C.E. by an unknown Egyptian Yigal Shiloh, clarified the details Jew, contains a pleasing picture of Jewish aqueduct builders of Warren's Shaft which is really a Hasmonean Jerusalem, with its triple were able to draw upon well-developed system containing wall, its markets, and its ample supply an entrance area, a stepped tunnel , of drinking water. Roman engineering a horizontal tunnel , the vertical shaft These supplies were sufficient knowledge and experience. and a tunnel connecting it to the while Jerusalem was the main city spring . A hydro-geological survey, of a reduced Judea, but with the • • performed by Dr. Dan Gill of the growth of the Hasmonean kingdom Israel Geological Survey within the and of immigration from the Jewish visible remains, and collection of the framework of these excavations, Diaspora which sent many settlers literary sources referring to the history showed that the shaft's builders and pilgrims to Jerusalem, it became of the aqueducts down to the present. utilized natural clefts, tunnels and one of the great cities of the region. Despite a natural tendency shafts to build it. This considerable expansion gradually to deprecate the abilities of our Of the next-built water system, the created a serious water problem, since predecessors and especially those of Siloam Channel/Tunnel (Chunnel?) , the Gihon Spring, the reservoirs and "unadvanced" and early civilizations parts of which had been lost under the cisterns no longer sufficed. As in as compared with our own advanced later debris, the City of David many cities of the Hellenistic-Roman technology, one can only wonder Expedition discovered three previously world the problem was solved by at the skill of the ancient engineers. unknown segments, and they found constructing aqueducts to bring water The First Temple water systems that it differed basically from water from a distance. would seem to have been based on systems in other cities of this period . Such aqueducts are mentioned considerable local knowledge and It carried water partly in a channel in the Talmud, which relates that technology, since both Mesopotamian and partly in a tunnel to the Siloam the High Priest used waters from and Egyptian water engineering and other pools, it could be used for had quite different circumstances to irrigation as well as for domestic water • • deal with. Little is known about the supply, and it was entirely outside ----------- origins of knowledge or the transfer the city walls, making it only a Hezekiah's Tunnel solved the of technology in the ancient world, peacetime system. special problems of water whether between generations or The Siloam Channel/Tunnel was among countries. What is clear is replaced in 701 B.C.E. by Hezekiah's supply in the City of David that in Second Temple times Jewish Tunnel, which solved the special in a sophisticated though aqueduct builders, in addition to their problems of water supply in the simple manner. own local expertise, were able to draw City of David in a sophisticated upon Roman engineering knowledge though simple manner. The curved , • • and experience at least from the 22 Solomon's Pools, Jerusalem's main reservoir from Second Temple times until a generation ago Wern er Braun time that Pompey and his soldiers is completely unnecessary from a annexed Judea in 63 B.C.E., after • topographical point of view since the having been invited to the country The plenitude of ritual baths wadi provided no obstacle, but it had by Hasmonean factions contending shows that water was not in another purpose, and it demonstrates among themselves.

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