YITZCHAK DINUR

WATER FOR •••

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 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, , 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 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 , and that recent 1948 water crisis has '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 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 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 , which gushes large reservoir, the Siloam Pool near 's endeavors to divert intermittently for about 40 minutes the present-day Arab village of , 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 '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 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. short supply at that time. the expert geological and hydrological Prof. Mazar remarks that, as in all knowledge possessed by the builders. Roman aqueducts, the flow of water Having been dug along a line where to Jerusalem was solely by gravity. an aquifer, a water-permeable layer, Thus, the sources of water had to be met with a completely impermeable higher than the city being supplied . layer, it simply gathered and drained Such sources are found south of very slight differences in height and water from the aquifer, in addition Jerusalem in three concentrations the numerous topographical obstacles to conducting the output of several from which three aqueducts issued: called for a very slight gradient and a springs. They had constructed an at a point in Wadi Arrub, where the meandering, lengthy route for two of artificial water source three kilometers springs are an average of 810 meters the three aqueducts. long, unparalleled anywhere else in above sea level; in Wadi Biyar at But the aqueducts' channels, Eretz Israel, by using a well-known the southern end of which there is tunnels and vaulted bridges did not Persian system which the Romans a spring at the 870 meter level; and only transfer spring water, Prof. Mazar themselves had copied throughout in the region of Solomon's Pools notes. A short aqueduct in Wadi Biyar their empire. The quality of the system (south of Bethlehem), where there has a fairly straight route mostly and the aqueduct's efficacy are are two springs above the pools, at through tunnels. The first three of its indicated by the fact that, during the 800 meters, and two more below 4.7 kilometers are actually one long period of the British Mandate over the pools at 765 meters. The final tunnel at a depth of five to 23 meters, Palestine (from 1918 to 1948), when destination of the Lower Aqueduct that was hewn through tens of shafts, Jerusalem's water supply was again -the - lies at a level a well-known technique employed assigned the importance it deserved, of 735 meters above sea level. These in Roman aqueducts. This tunnel the authorities repaired Solomon's Pools and rebuilt the aqueduct which Ottoman Suleiman the Magnificent. week (at least not for lodgers) . is still in use today as the main source This monarch, who was concerned During the 19 years (from 1948 until for filling the pools. with the state of the many cities in his 1967) that Eastern Jerusalem was in The other much longer aqueducts empire, gave attention to Jerusalem, Jordanian hands, no attention was have their own distinctive features, rebuilding the wall which had fallen paid to improving the water system , among which Prof. Mazar mentions into ruin , refacing the Dome of the which worked only two days a week, a well-made pipeline of closely fitted Rock and establishing five magnificent and the inhabitants, most of whose stone segments in the upper of the fountains (four inside and one just homes had no piped water, stored two aqueducts leading the water from outside the city) for refreshing water in containers and tanks, and Solomon's Pools to the city. passers-by. He also ordered the repair continued to collect water in cisterns. The three great receptacles of the conduits bringing water from After the Six-Day War, they were constituting Solomon's Pools were the Solomon's Pools, and constructed linked to the Israeli water system , main reservoirs for Second Temple the Sultan's Pool named after him in and faucets in private homes became Jerusalem's water supply system the Valley of Hinnom (the original much more common. Cisterns still in and continued to be so until the last gehinnom or hell!) just below the city. use are not linked to the piped-water generation. They underwent many He thus provided a good supply of system. repairs and changes so that the water for what was at the time a quite Since Israel achieved independence original work is no longer visible. small city, rather an overgrown village. in 1948, as we are told by Dr. Israel Mazar calculates that they can hold Kimhi of the University's Institute 288,000 cubic meters, which was THE MODERN city of Jerusalem is of Urban and Regional Studies who accumulated during winter and a complete contrast to the above lectures on urban water supply allowed to flow to Jerusalem during picture. The last use of water from systems, the capital city's water supply the dry parts of the year. They were cisterns in the Jewish part of the city has been vastly improved, and three repaired most recently in 1924 and occurred during the siege in 1948, pipelines (18", 24" and 36" diameter pumps fitted to improve the supply, after which military engineers and pipes) now provide a plenitude and until1948, they continued to the Mekorot water company quickly of water to a greatly expanded be an important component of reconnected Jerusalem and later urban area. Most of the water is now Jerusalem's water supply system proceeded to enlarge the local storage pumped from deeply drilled wells (in Jordanian-occupied Jerusalem capacity and the pipelines, as located to the west near the foot of until1967). well as drilling new wells in and the Judean Mountains, and these In Second Temple times the around Jerusalem. supply first quality drinking water. living seems to have been good, But old habits die hard . In the About ten percent of the water comes at least in those parts of Second 1950s and 1960s, when many students from wells within the Jerusalem area. Temple Jerusalem uncovered by It is distributed by a complex network Prof. Nahman Avigad, of the Institute of pipes, subsidiary pumping stations of Archaeology. Excavating in an and holding ponds (for pressure aristocratic section of the ancient Jerusalem's water system regulation and for emergencies) to all capital, he found spacious houses with is now one of the best in parts of the united city. All told there large salons, with mosaic floors and the country with electronic are more than 810 km of municipal with at least one mikve (ritual bath) water pipelines, and enough water in each. In the largest, a 600-square­ supervision of rates of can be stored to maintain normal meter "palace," he even found five supply and consumption, of consumption throughout the city such baths, and he speculates that water quality and pressure in for more than 24 hours in case of a this could have been the residence complete cutoff. Jerusalem's water of one of the high priests, or even the lines, and of water level system is now one of the best in the the official residence to which a high in the municipal reservoirs. country with electronic supervision of priest would move after his formal rates of supply and consumption , of installation in the position . The • water quality and pressure in the lines, plenitude of ritual baths shows that still lived in rented rooms rather and of water level in the municipal water was not in short supply at that than in today's numerous University reservoirs. Indeed, Jerusalem's time, and it may be assumed that even dormitories, it was common on water department now supplies the the lower classes benefited from the Thursday evenings to see students neighboring town of Ramallah. W~ter arrangements, particularly in view of rushing home to their lodgings for loss in the pipelines has been reduced rigorous demands for purity in the the one shower a week that they to less than 12 percent, and in 1987/88 holy city and among all who had any were allowed by their landladies. the Water Department was awarded business with the Temple. These were the legendary thrifty the Kaplan Productivity Prize for After the Moslem conquest Jerusalem landladies, who could saving water, reducing wastage, and and during the Mameluke period not get themselves to believe that improving service to customers. Jerusalem declined and only began there really was enough water readily In the last ten years water to revive somewhat in the reign of the available for more than one shower a consumption in both Western and 24 Eastern Jerusalem has trebled because of the population increase, growth of industry and a rise in the general standard of living, and because the improved supply has allowed it. No longer are students seen rushing to their rooms for their weekly Thursday shower. Now "Cl that water is not so scarce even the "'~ ~ Jerusalem landladies let their students (/)" o Ci c. memories of water shortages still live ::> in the minds of veteran Jerusalemites (/) and serve a useful purpose as a barrier to spendthrift waste of a valuable natural resource which, on a national level , is actually in short supply. •

Valve house for one of Jerusalem's main water reservoirs ..,. ~"' Central control panel > for Jerusalem's water system 'Y

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