Jerusalem Explored, Volume 1—Text: Being a Description of the Ancient and Modern City, with Numerous Illustrations Consisting of Views, Ground Plans and SectionsPierotti, Ermete
History
Jerusalem Explored, Volume 1—Text: Being a Description of the Ancient and Modern City, with Numerous Illustrations Consisting of Views, Ground Plans and Sections
Pierotti, Ermete
Jerusalem -- Antiquities; Jerusalem -- Description and travel
Solomon to convey the water into Moriah, which had been diverted when
Saladin broke down the aqueduct, in order to cut off the supply from the
Crusaders[869]. The Mohammedan chronicles relate that Solyman the
Magnificent went to great expense in restoring it. At a later period,
under the government of Kiamil Pasha and Surraya Pasha, in 1856 and in
1860, the waters of Etham were brought into Jerusalem, on which occasion
I co-operated with the Turkish engineer, Assad Effendi; but these last
repairs have not been permanent, because the _fellahîn_ divert the water
for their private purposes, and those whose duty it is to guard the
aqueduct are bribed to blindness by a present of a lamb or some money.
Until the Governor adopts rigorous measures, the water will be used by
the herdsmen, and will not reach the city.
I will now briefly indicate the advantages that the waters of Etham must
have produced when they supplied Jerusalem. (1) They filled _Birket
es-Sultan_, or the lower pool, at the southern end of the Valley of
Gihon, then irrigated the gardens and fields in the Valley of Hinnom,
and afterwards flowed into the Kidron, augmenting its volume and aiding
in sweeping away the sewage from the Temple. I have found at certain
places in the Valley of Hinnom remains of ancient walls, which I
consider to have belonged to pools formed there to keep the water until
it was wanted for the neighbouring fields. (2) When the water arrived at
the western extremity of the bridge across the Tyropoeon, a branch
conduit, as I believe, carried a portion of it northward to supply the
different fountains, which still exist in the valley, and also to aid in
filling the Pool of Bethesda; which however was also supplied by the
conduit from the northern valley, and by others from the pool outside S.
Mary's Gate, which was filled from the ditch on the north-east outside
the city. Hence it appears that the lower city was well provided with
water. The works which I have hitherto described could still be restored
with the greatest ease, if the Government chose to expend £7200 in
repairing them in different places, and to organize an effective police
to guard the aqueduct from injury by any chance comer; a thing at
present impossible, owing to the venality of the officials of the
Government, and the barbarism of the Arabs. The former, however, is the
more insurmountable evil. In 1860 I proposed a plan to Surraya Pasha for
securing the water-supply from Etham, and shewed how the expenditure
might be repaid by a rate on Jerusalem and Bethlehem (which is on the
course of the conduit, and receives benefit from it); this rate would be
a positive gain to the inhabitants of the former place, as it would save
them from the capricious and exaggerated demands of those who bring
water into the city, when the cisterns have failed in a season of
drought. He at once perceived the advantages of my plan, but was unable
to carry it into effect, as he could not secure the necessary
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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