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Gihon Spring Not Reliable

Being intermittent, it required the excavation of the Pool of Siloam, which stored the large amount of water needed for the town when the spring was not flowing. Before the sinking of the water table due to overpumping in modern times, the spring used to flow three to five times daily in winter, twice daily in summer, and only once daily in autumn. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gihon_Spring)

Jerusalem Post  – 2023

The discovery “may also shed light on the question – who built the first aqueduct – whether it was the Hasmoneans or perhaps King Herod,” the researchers noted. The longest continuous section of Jerusalem’s ancient aqueduct has been uncovered in Givat Hamatos, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Monday. The stretch of the ancient aqueduct, which measures some 300 meters (roughly 1,000 feet) in length, was discovered during archaeological excavations of the area prior to the planned development of the settlement by the Municipality of Jerusalem. The municipality plans on building schools. One of the companies involved in the Givat Hamatos development, Arim, funded the archaeological efforts.

A number of ancient coins, including a coin minted at the time of the First Jewish–Roman War, were also discovered. Antiquities Authority excavation directors Dr. Ofer Shyam and Ruth Cohen note that the Jerusalem aqueduct was built to meet the ancient city’s growing water demands. “In the late days of the Second Temple, the city of Jerusalem grew significantly. The Temple had been rebuilt and the water that flowed in conduits and cisterns was no longer sufficient for the thousands of pilgrims and residents,” they explain. “Water needed to be brought to the city from a distance.”

So, in order to meet Jerusalem’s growing need for water, the Hasmoneans, and then King Herod, built two aqueducts to Jerusalem. One of the aqueducts, “the Upper Aqueduct” channeled water to the upper city, what is presently the Jewish and Armenian Quarters of the Old City. The other, “the Lower Aqueduct,” brought water to the Temple.

Shyam and Cohen describe these aqueducts as being “among the largest and most complex water systems in the land of Israel – and indeed, in the ancient world.” The aqueducts were remarkable feats of engineering, each traversing the roughly ten kilometers from Bethlehem Springs where the water originated to Jerusalem. Additionally, “in the foundations of the aqueduct from the days of the Tenth Legion, we found about 25 coins scattered at relatively equal distances,” Shyam and Cohen said. “In our opinion, this was not accidental: it is quite similar to the custom today, where coins are placed there for good luck.”

Also found in the aqueduct’s infrastructure was a coin from the Second Temple era that was minted around 67-68 CE, during the Great Jewish Revolt, otherwise known as the first of three Jewish-Roman wars. The press release noted that the researchers theorized that the builders of the ancient Jerusalem aqueduct incorporated it into the structure’s foundations when laying the conduit.

(Staff writer, “Israel uncovers massive section of Second Temple-era aqueduct in Jerusalem,” Jerusalem Post, AUGUST 28, 2023; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c8jM5WSv6o)

Jerusalem Post  – 2021

Even in First Temple times approximately 3,000 years ago, water cisterns were painstakingly chiseled into the rock, then coated with sealing layers of yellow waterproofing plaster to form substantial underground reservoirs. When a cistern of this type was discovered near the Temple Mount in 2012, it proved that the GIHON SPRING, though useful, was NOT AN ADEQUATE SOURCE OF WATER FOR TEMPLE NEEDS. 
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ON MAY 21, 2015, Times of Israel quoted Billig’s description of the lower aqueduct, which begins at the Ein Eitam spring near Solomon’s Pools south of Bethlehem and stretches 21 kilometers downhill to Jerusalem. “Despite its length, it flows along a very gentle downward slope whereby the water level falls just one meter per kilometer of distance. At first, the water was conveyed inside an open channel [covered with stone slabs], and about 500 years ago, during the Ottoman period, a terra cotta pipe was installed inside the channel in order to better protect the water.”
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The second main watercourse to reach Jerusalem from the Hebron hills, also beginning at Solomon’s Pools, is the High-Level aqueduct. This aqueduct, dating back about 1,800 years to the second to third century CE, is approximately 13 km. long. It brought water to the upper city of Jerusalem for the benefit of King Herod’s palace and of Hezekiah’s Pool – THE MAIN SOURCE OF WATER FOR VISITORS TO JERUSALEM. Some new sections of it, some 1.5 meters high and built of large stones, were discovered in 2009/2010 near Jaffa Gate in the Old City. The archeologists were helped in their excavation by some late 19th century studies of German Protestant scholar Dr. Conrad Schick.
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Presumably, however, the aqueduct was first constructed in the days of Herod, as we know from other places along its route, particularly in the Bethlehem area.”

 Susan De La Fuente, “Water sustainability throughout Jerusalem’s history,” Jerusalem Post, September 30, 2021)

Professor Widener Debunks Lack of Water on Mount

(“The Third Temple is Already Here (But People Don’t See It),” YouTube, Apr 13, 2024, @34:55)

See Also

  • McRay, John. Archaeology and the New Testament, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, c1991; see Diagram 12 – Water Cisterns on the Temple Mount, p. 122, and Diagram 13 – Pools in Jerusalem, p. 124.

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