Birket Israel
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Birket Israel ( trans. ''Pool of Israel'') also Birket Israil or Birket Isra'in, abbreviated from Birket Beni Israìl ( trans. ''Pool of the Children of Israel'') was a public
cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...
located on the north-eastern corner of the
Temple Mount The Temple Mount (), also known as the Noble Sanctuary (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, 'Haram al-Sharif'), and sometimes as Jerusalem's holy esplanade, is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem, Old City of Jerusalem that has been venerated as a ...
, in
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
. The structure is believed to have been built either in the Late Roman or the Umayyad period for use as a water reservoir and also to protect the northern wall of the Temple Mount. Hackett attests that Arab locals knew it by this name in 1857. Hackett (1857)
p. 186
/ref> 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


Date

According to Muslim tradition, the reservoir was constructed by
Ezekiel Ezekiel, also spelled Ezechiel (; ; ), was an Israelite priest. The Book of Ezekiel, relating his visions and acts, is named after him. The Abrahamic religions acknowledge Ezekiel as a prophet. According to the narrative, Ezekiel prophesied ...
or
Hezekiah Hezekiah (; ), or Ezekias (born , sole ruler ), was the son of Ahaz and the thirteenth king of Kingdom of Judah, Judah according to the Hebrew Bible.Stephen L Harris, Harris, Stephen L., ''Understanding the Bible''. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. "G ...
,
King of Judah The Kings of Judah were the monarchs who ruled over the ancient Kingdom of Judah, which was formed in about 930 BC, according to the Hebrew Bible, when the United Kingdom of Israel split, with the people of the northern Kingdom of Israel rejecti ...
. Hanauer (2008), p. 104 Some archaeologists have determined that the cistern was possibly built during the Herodian period to improve Jerusalem's water supply.From Pompey to the Destruction of the Second Temple
/ref> Others estimate the date of construction later, in around 130 CE. This view is held by
Charles Warren Sir Charles Warren (7 February 1840 – 21 January 1927) was a British Army officer of the Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of the Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of the Temple Mount. Much of his military ...
who recorded that although some kind of fosse must have existed at the spot at a very early period, since there is no description of the pool in the works of
Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...
, "and it is very improbable that he would have omitted to mention so enormous a reservoir had it existed in his time", it was most probably constructed by Roman emperor
Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...
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 (section 4) as already existing, and "would therefore most naturally be referable to Hadrian." Apart from such speculation or the discovery of a Byzantine-style cross carved into the outlet channel, the first explicit mention of the pool only dates to the 10th-century historian al-Muqaddasi. Shimon Gibson, who has worked in the nearby area of the Bethesda Pool, suggests that the Birkat was built by the Umayyads during their large construction campaign on the Haram al-Sharif.


Description

Birket Isra'il was constructed in the bed of the western fork of the Kidron Valley that traverses the north-west quarter of the city. Paton 908(1977), p. 35 It formed Jerusalem's largest reservoir, measuring by with a maximum depth of . Finkelstein, Horbury, Davies & Sturdy (1999), p. 10 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 A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...
, protecting the northern wall of the Temple Mount. The eastern and western ends of the pool were partially rock-cut and partly
masonry Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...
. The masonry at the eastern end formed a great dam 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, also called , was used in construction in ancient Rome. Like its modern equivalent, Roman concrete was based on a hydraulic-setting cement added to an aggregate. Many buildings and structures still standing today, such as br ...
and cement. There was a great conduit 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 must have flowed away.''International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia'' (1913)
/ref>


Misidentification as the "Pool of Bethesda"

The Birket Israel cistern was frequented by Christian pilgrims during the 19th century, it being previously identified as the "Sheep Pool" or
Pool of Bethesda The Pool of Bethesda is referred to in John's Gospel in the Christian New Testament, (John 5#Healing at Bethesda (5:2–15), John 5:2) in an account of healing the paralytic at Bethesda, Jesus healing a paralyzed man at a pool of water in Je ...
of John 5:2; a double-pool with five porches, where the sick came to be cured. Kopp (1963), Pages 305–313. 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 The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
. 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 in 1893.Schuler, Wolfgang (1991). ''In the Holy Land: Paintings by David Roberts 1839''. Bnei Brak, Israel: Steimatzky ltd. What appears to be Birket Israel is described as: "Jerusalem, Bethesda Pool between the Temple Mount (left) and St. Anna". According to Kopp, the Pool of Bethesda became associated with a
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
church by 450 CE; then a 6th-century church, which by the arrival of the
Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...
in 1099, was known as the "Church of St. Anne". A new Church of St. Anne was built in the 12th century CE; the pool fell into disuse after the fall of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Crusader Kingdom, was one of the Crusader states established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1 ...
, while the church was converted into a
madrasah Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary education or higher learning ...
, Christian pilgrims being redirected to nearby Birket Israel on the other side of what is now called the Lions Gate Street, whose more western section is part of the
Via Dolorosa The (Latin for 'Sorrowful Way', often translated 'Way of Suffering'; ; ) is a processional route in the Old City of Jerusalem. It represents the path that Jesus took, forced by the Roman soldiers, on the way to his crucifixion. The winding rou ...
. Ownership of the whole site of the Church of St. Anne passed to France after the
Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
, 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. Wallace 898(1977), p. 225


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. Wallace 898(1977), p. 240 In 1934 the pool was filled in because its condition posed a threat to public health. Safdie, Barton, & Shetrit (1986), p. 115 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 A multistorey car park (Commonwealth English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistorey, parking building, parking structure, parkade (Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck, or indoor parking, is a building designed fo ...
at the site. This post-1967 plan was rejected by the ''
waqf A (; , plural ), also called a (, plural or ), or ''mortmain'' property, is an Alienation (property law), inalienable charitable financial endowment, endowment under Sharia, Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot ...
'' 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.United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Jerusalem and the Implementation of 21 C/Resolution 4/14
31 May 1983
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.


See also

* Pool of Siloam


References


Bibliography

* Finkelstein, Louis; Horbury, William; Davies, William David; Sturdy, John. ''The Cambridge History of Judaism'',
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
, 1999.
* Hackett, Horatio Balch (1857).
Illustrations of Scripture: Suggested by a Tour Through the Holy Land
', Heath & Graves, 1857.
* Hanauer, J.E. ''Folk-lore of the Holy Land'', BiblioBazaar, 2008. *Kopp, Clemens 9621963). ''The Holy Places of the Gospels''. Freiburg: Herder, Edinburgh and London: Nelson. Originally published in 1962 as ''Die Heiligen Statten der Evangelien'' (in German). * Safdie, Moshe; Barton, Rudy & Shetrit, Uri. ''The Harvard Jerusalem Studio'', MIT Press, 1986. * Paton, Lewis Bayles. ''Jerusalem in Bible Times'', Ayer Publishing, 1977. *Wallace, Edwin Sherman.
Jerusalem the Holy
', Ayer Publishing, 1977.
{{good article Classical sites in Jerusalem Reservoirs in Jerusalem Temple Mount