Birket Israel
Encyclopedia
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
Pool of the Tribes of the Children of Israel) was a public cistern
Cistern
A cistern is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by their waterproof linings...
located on the north-eastern corner of the Temple Mount
Temple Mount
The Temple Mount, known in Hebrew as , and in Arabic as the Haram Ash-Sharif , is one of the most important religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem. It has been used as a religious site for thousands of years...
, in Jerusalem. The structure is believed to have been built by the Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
for use as a water reservoir and also to protect the northern wall of the Temple Mount. Arab natives have known it by this name since at least 1857.
By the mid-19th century it had gone out of use as a reservoir; being partly filled with rubbish and reused as a vegetable garden. In 1934 it was filled in and is now known as el-Ghazali Square. It is currently in mixed use for shops, as a car park, and as a transshipment point for refuse.
Construction
Ezekiel
Ezekiel , "God will strengthen" , is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Ezekiel is acknowledged as a Hebrew prophet...
or Hezekiah
Hezekiah
Hezekiah was the son of Ahaz and the 14th king of Judah. Edwin Thiele has concluded that his reign was between c. 715 and 686 BC. He is also one of the most prominent kings of Judah mentioned in the Hebrew Bible....
, King of Judah. Some archaeologists have determined that the cistern was possibly built during the Herodian period
Herodian Dynasty
The Herodian Dynasty was a Jewish dynasty of Idumean descent, client Kings of Roman Judaea Province between 37 BCE and 92 CE.- Origin :During the time of the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus 134-104 BCE, Israel conquered Edom and forced the Edomites to convert to Judaism.The Edomites were integrated...
to improve Jerusalem's water supply. Others estimate the date of construction later, in around 130 CE. This view is held by Charles Warren
Charles Warren
General Sir Charles Warren, GCMG, KCB, FRS was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of Temple Mount...
who recorded that although some kind of fosse
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
must have existed at the spot at a very early period, since there is no description of the pool in the works of Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
, "and it is very improbable that he world have omitted to mention so enormous a reservoir had it existed in his time", it was most probably constructed by Roman emperor Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
during his restoration of Jerusalem. This is further attested to since the masonry of the birket is inferior in character and resembles the later Roman work in Syria. Additionally, this reservoir appears to be mentioned by the Bordeaux Pilgrim
Itinerarium Burdigalense
The Itinerarium Burdigalense is the oldest known Christian itinerarium, written by an anonymous pilgrim from Burdigala...
(section 4) as already existing, and "would therefore most naturally be referable to Hadrian."
It was constructed in the bed of the western fork of the Kidron Valley
Kidron Valley
The Kidron Valley is the valley on the eastern side of The Old City of Jerusalem which features significantly in the Bible...
that traverses the north-west quarter of the city. It formed Jerusalem's largest reservoir, measuring 109.7 m (360 ft) by 38.4 m (126 ft) with a maximum depth of 26 m (85 ft). The cistern contained a total capacity of 120,000 cubic meters and for centuries it formed part of Jerusalem's rainwater storage system. The pool also served as a moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
, protecting the northern wall of the Temple Mount.
The eastern and western ends of the pool were partially rock-cut and partly masonry
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
. The masonry at the eastern end formed a great dam 13.7 m (45 ft) thick, the lower part of which was continuous with an ancient eastern wall of the Temple compound. The sides of the pool were lined entirely with masonry because it was built across the width of a valley. The original bottom of the reservoir was covered with a layer of about 19 inches of very hard Roman concrete
Roman concrete
Roman concrete was a material used in construction during the late Roman Republic through the whole history of the Roman Empire. Roman concrete was based on a hydraulic-setting cement with many material qualities similar to modern Portland cement...
and cement. There was a great conduit
Pipe (material)
A pipe is a tubular section or hollow cylinder, usually but not necessarily of circular cross-section, used mainly to convey substances which can flow — liquids and gases , slurries, powders, masses of small solids...
at the eastern end of the pool built of massive stones, and connected with the pool by a perforated stone with three round holes 5½ inches in diameter. The position of this outlet shows that all water over a depth of 6.5 m (21 ft) must have flowed away.
Association with the Pool of Bethesda
The Birket Israel cistern was frequented by Christian pilgrimChristian pilgrimage
Christian pilgrimage was first made to sites connected with the ministry of Jesus. Surviving descriptions of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land and Jerusalem date from the 4th century, when pilgrimage was encouraged by church fathers like Saint Jerome and established by Helena, the mother of...
s during the 19th century, it being previously identified as the "Sheep Pool" or Pool of Bethesda
Pool of Bethesda
The Pool of Bethesda is a pool of water in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem, on the path of the Beth Zeta Valley. The Gospel of John describes such a pool in Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. It is associated with healing. Until the 19th century, there...
of John 5:2
John 5
John 5 is the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John of the New Testament of the Christian Bible.- Healing at Bethesda :Jesus goes to Jerusalem for a feast. At the Pool of Bethesda he heals a paralyzed man. Jesus tells him to "Pick up your mat and walk!" This takes place on the sabbath, and many...
; a double-pool with five porches
Vestibule (architecture)
A vestibule is a lobby, entrance hall, or passage between the entrance and the interior of a building.The same term can apply to structures in modern or ancient roman architecture. In modern architecture vestibule typically refers to a small room or hall between an entrance and the interior of...
, where the sick came to be cured. This link was based on the premise that the nearby St. Stephen's Gate occupied the site of the Sheep Gate mentioned in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. It was reinforced by the co-location of the names 'Birket Israel' and the 'Pool of Bethesda' on maps and plans of Jerusalem; and in drawings and paintings, such as those made by David Roberts
David Roberts (painter)
David Roberts RA was a Scottish painter. He is especially known for a prolific series of detailed lithograph prints of Egypt and the Near East that he produced during the 1840s from sketches he made during long tours of the region . These, and his large oil paintings of similar subjects, made him...
in 1893.
According to Kopp, the Pool of Bethesda became associated with a Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
church by 450 CE; then a sixth century church, which by the arrival of the Crusaders
First Crusade
The First Crusade was a military expedition by Western Christianity to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem...
, in 1099, was known as the "Church of St. Anne". A new Church of St. Anne was built in the twelve century (CE); the church and the pool fell into disuse after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....
. The church was converted into madrasah
Madrasah
Madrasah is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious...
and Christian pilgrims were redirected to nearby Birket Israel on the other side of what is now called the "Via Dolorosa
Via Dolorosa
The Via Dolorosa is a street, in two parts, within the Old City of Jerusalem, held to be the path that Jesus walked, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifixion. The current route has been established since the 18th century, replacing various earlier versions...
". Ownership of the whole site of the Church of St. Anne passed to France after the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
, in 1856; and discoveries made in around 1870 led to the belief that the real Pool of Bethesda was actually located in the grounds of the Church of St. Anne.
Later uses
By the mid-19th century, Birket Israel was no longer being used as a reservoir; and towards the end of the 19th century it was being rapidly filled with refuse and part of it was being used as a vegetable garden. In 1934 the pool was filled in because its condition posed a threat to public health.Being located just inside the Lions' Gate, one of the major entries to the Old City, the East Jerusalem Development Company initially intended to excavate the reservoir and build a multi-storey car park at the site. This post-1967 plan was rejected by the waqf
Jerusalem Islamic Waqf
The Jerusalem Islamic Waqf is an Islamic trust best known for controlling and managing the current Islamic edifices on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Waqf has governed access to the geographic region since the Muslim reconquest of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187...
authorities who own the plot because they feared that clearance work at the base of the Temple Mount would endanger the Haram compound. Subsequently, in 1981 a small square equipped with benches was constructed on part of the covered pool.
Today the area is known as el-Ghazali Square and is used as a car park and collection point for refuse before it is dumped outside the city. Some small shops also exist at the site.