This aqueduct of Solomon’s was a stupendous work. The fountain of Etham, whose waters the pools received, was about one hundred and fifty paces above them. The pools were of an oblong form, the highest one hundred and sixty, the second two hundred, the lowest two hundred and twenty paces in length, and all ninety paces in breadth. The celebrated gardens of Solomon lay beneath these reservoirs, and were a work equally admirable in their kind. They lay in a rocky valley, enclosed by high hills, and were five hundred paces long and two hundred broad. A solitude, which had nothing in it wild or savage, made them a delightful retreat. In the stillness of this glen, amidst fruit-trees of every variety, the king might find a noble recreation from the cares of royalty. From these extraordinary gardens Solomon derived his imagery, when he said, “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse;”[98] and when he speaks in the same passage of a spring shut up, and a fountain sealed, we are reminded of the fountain of Etham, which Solomon is said to have sealed with his own signet ring. Both may serve to explain the words of the Preacher. “I made me great works, I builded me houses, I planted me vineyards; I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits; I made me pools of water to water therewith the wood of green trees.”[99] Both the reservoirs and the aqueduct appeared, by the solidity of their construction, to have been designed to last for ever, and were worthy of the king by whom they were made, and of his times, of which the Book of Chronicles declares, that “Silver was in Jerusalem like stones.”[100] Our travellers blessed his memory, as they drank, beneath the shade of the palms, the refreshing draught of the cool rock water. It was just mid-day, the heat of the sun was intense, and all longed for repose and coolness. Footnote 98: Canticles iv. 12. Footnote 99: Eccl. ii. 4. Footnote 100: 2 Chron. ix. 27.