"There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her." (Ps.46:4,5 ASV; 48:1)

The word rendered river in the AV is generally explained as referring to the brook Kidron, which flows down the valley of that name on the East side of Jerusalem. "The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High" has, however, direct reference to the Temple on Mt.Moriah. The word rendered river in this psalm is the Hebrew word Nahar, which denotes a perennial spring, a constantly flowing source of water, clear, fresh, running water that the Hebrews called 'living waters' in contrast to the waters of a stagnant pool. It is therefore not applicable to the brook Kidron that contains a little water only after rainfall, but otherwise is a dry watercourse during the whole year ("the streams are of short duration", p.8, Notes on the Water Supply of Jerusalem, J.MacNeill, Capt. Wilson, 1866).

Is there a perennial, a constantly flowing spring of water connected with the 'city of the great King' (Ps.48:2) and with the Temple on Mt.Moriah, and which made the city of Jerusalem rejoice? And how is it that a Roman historian could describe Jerusalem, situated on an elevation, on mountains, as "Within, truly well watered; but without, altogether dry?" (Tacitus, Hist.v.12).

In spite of its closeness to the arid Judean wilderness, on the East side of Jerusalem there is a single source of living water called the Gihon Spring or the Gihon Fountain. It was "vital to the existence of Jerusalem" (Digging Up Jerusalem, K.M.Kenyon, 1975, p.76). An archaeological and geological survey between 1909-11 concluded, "The prominent point established by the recent excavations is the extreme importance of the fountain" and also wrote of "the very remote geological period when it first issued." (p.31, Underground Jerusalem-Discoveries on the Hill of Ophel, H.V. 1911)

Rainfall in Israel was completely seasonal, from April to November. For seven months there is virtually none. Any permanent settlement had to be within reach of a perennial water supply. Only one such spring exists in Jerusalem, the Gihon spring, it is truly water in a thirsty land. Access to this spring was the reason for the first Jerusalem, and appears in the pages of history for the first time when Abraham meets up with Priest and King of the Most High, Melchizedek, under the name Salem (Gen.14:18).

A military as well as a town-planning problem lay in how to protect this single vital water source. The spring lies in the valley, any fortification here would easily be overcome from higher grounds. It was solved by closing the entrance to the spring and cutting a vertical shaft to access the water, executed either by Melchizedek, or the Jebusites who eventually moved into the settlement. A team of archaeologists and geologists reported the shaft is a "scientifically constructed wonderful path so perfectly hidden in the rocks" (Underground Jerusalem, p.34, termed 'Warren's Shaft'.)

A wall, the Eastern city wall, well down the slope of Mt.Zion/Ophel protected this new opening. If it were too low it would be vulnerable; control of the spring conditioned the position of this east wall. Jerusalem itself occupied a lofty position, built as it was on the elevated summit of a ridge of limestone rock. It was a mountain fortress and could not be taken by any invader at the time. So impregnable was its approach that the Jebusites boasted that a lame or a blind man could guard the city (2 Sam.5:6-10).

However, David either knew or discovered not only access to the Gihon Spring, but also the "water tunnel" (2 Sam.5:8) that led from the Spring into the city. He offered a reward of first in command to any of his men who would be first to scale the shaft and enter the city (1 Ch.11:4-9). Joab succeeded taking the Jebusites completely by surprise, possibly at night, opening the city gates, and the city fell.

Joab's feat in climbing the 50-foot shaft must have been considerable. An expedition in 1867 by Warren could not climb it without wooden scaffolding. In 1909-11 the Parker expedition also failed. Kenyon's excavators failed in the 1961-7 excavations, 100 years after the first attempt!

Another team in 1978 attempted repeatedly but were unable to scale it, and had to enlist the help of skilled climbers; in 1979 it took three alpine climbers two hours using specialist equipment. (See "The Rediscovery of the Ancient Water System Known as "Warren's Shaft"" by Yigal Shiloh, in Ancient Jerusalem Revealed, Ed.H.Geva, p.49)

It has an oval shape, like a chimney in the rock and designed to draw the water. A geological survey came to the conclusion that the vertical shaft, and the cavernous lateral tunnel that accesses the shaft, were engineered by integrating natural and man-made features. This was in itself an accomplishment. They went to extraordinary lengths to tap this single source of water.

Jerusalem was to be not only the capital, the city of the great King, but also the place where the Temple was to stand, so David, after taking the city, first secured the Gihon Spring, which lay outside the city itself and walls protecting access to it. A key problem for Solomon in the planning of Jerusalem and the Temple was how to ensure a regular supply of water.

What of all the water for ritual washings and purifications, called ablutions, required under the old Law and which were numerous? (Mk.7:3,4) Where did the water for all this come from? All the priests and Levites had frequently to wash. The three main festivals often had as many as a thousand priests and Levites officiating. The sacrifices for burnt offerings had to be washed and cleaned; all the vessels of the Temple had to be washed. Whole sheep and lambs also were washed, and during one Passover over 200,000 lambs had to be washed and sacrificed (Josephus VI.ix.3).

To the north of the Temple there were three rock-hewn cisterns or open pools. One is a sheep pool where lambs and rams were taken, through the city Sheep Gate to be washed before sacrificed in the Temple (Neh.3:1). The other two cisterns together formed the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:2, House of Mercy or Bethzatha, House of Olives) over which there are five marble colonnades. These cisterns were cut in the rock with a rock partition about 20 feet thick. Each is 130 feet square, 30 feet deep. Where did all this water come from? Not from rain, for this could be contaminated and was forbidden in connection with the Temple. It would not account for the quantities used anyway. They were all fed by water engineered from the Gihon Spring by a series of hydraulic installations.

The Hebrew word gihon means 'gushes forth' and takes us to something Jesus Christ said (John 7:38) "out from his inner parts streams of living water will gush forth", and to a Samaritan woman at the well he stated that "whoever drinks from the water that I will give will become in him a fountain of water bubbling up to impart everlasting life" (John.4:14). It was King Solomon who extended water channels from Gihon to supply every part of Jerusalem with fresh running water. One system was for the city, the other for the Temple, two water systems that fulfilled different functions and operated in different ways. Interestingly Solomon was anointed King at the Gihon Spring (1 Kings 1:32-45), Josephus writes that the inauguration occurred at a fountain (Ant.vii.xiv:5), and the Mishna states that this led to the demand that all later kings of Judah be crowned at a spring, "Our Rabbis taught, Kings are anointed only by the site of a spring" (Kerithoth 5b). Kingship, Priesthood, and the Temple, were placed next to and dependent upon this Spring for their existence.

It was also at this Spring that David housed the Ark of the Covenant in a special tent until the Temple was built. It was specially housed for 38 years (the last 27 years of David, and the first 11 of Solomon; 2 Sam.6:16-20; 1 Kings 3:15; 8:1; 1 Ch.15:1; 16:1). In David's reign this spring became the appointed place for all ceremonial washings before any great act of worship or religious service. The Tabernacle itself, constructed in Moses' day, was at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:4; 1 Ch.16:39).

How then can a spring in a valley supply water to the top of a mountain? There were water channels, ducts and hydraulic tunnels connected to the Spring, and clearly indicates an advanced knowledge of the science of hydrology and hydrostatics, a branch of mechanics dealing with the characteristics of fluids, especially pressure, unknown to the Romans. The Romans used immense arched structures for conducting water across valleys and depressions. Solomon's engineers knew that water flowing through a siphon or a tube can be made to rise under pressure and exploited this when moving water from one position to another underground. They also had considerable skill in masonry. Where did these water channels run to?

There are vast cisterns beneath the Temple, great rock-cut reservoirs that were connected by elaborate hydraulic masonry to the Gihon Fountain. Thirty seven have been explored and excavated in detail (there are others that have not), they are called the "Royal Cisterns", mostly cut out of the soft chalk rock (maliki), but the roof of the cisterns is composed of harder overlaying rock (missae). They are all connected by passages, tunnels and innumerable ducts, so that beneath the Temple there is a honeycombed network of vaults and cisterns, all supplied by this single immense Spring. Many are of considerable depth (the latest survey of the Temple cisterns was carried out in 1996, Below the Temple Mount in Jerusalem: A Sourcebook on the cisterns, subterranean chambers and conduits of the Haram al‑Sharif, S.Gibson, D.M.Jacobson, 1996).

One cistern is so gigantic it is known as the Great Sea (not the Molten Sea) and covers an area of 11,000 square feet, is 42 feet deep on average, and holds 3 million gallons (Ecclesiasticus 1:3). Those that have been excavated amount to an area of seven acres and hold, in total, 10 million gallons, a quantity sufficient to supply Jerusalem for more than one year (Notes on the Water Supply of Jerusalem, p.68)! Yet this water was not for the general populace, but for the Temple and its worship services. Truly there was a subterranean sea under the Temple.

The Pools of Jerusalem were also supplied by the Spring, all of which were reputed to have healing properties. All of Jerusalem's waters had healing powers. The ten Pools of Jerusalem had a combined capacity of over 44 million gallons (Notes p.21). Also next to the Altar in the inner courtyard there was a huge copper basin (Ex.38:8) resting on 12 bull-calves arranged in groups of three facing a point of the compass, called the Molten Sea and held 10,000 gallons of water, seven feet high, three inches thick. A large and magnificent basin, grand enough to symbolise the Great Deep.

In 300 BC an Egyptian official, Aristeas, was sent to the High Priest at Jerusalem to procure a copy of the Law for the Great Library of Alexandria. In a letter to his brother he gives an account of his visit to Jerusalem (Ant.xii.ii.1,15; see also Eusebius). He writes, "a powerful natural spring is received into subterranean reservoirs, the extent of which is surprising and beyond description…each of them has countless pipes so that the different streams converge together...all these were fastened with copper at the bottom and at the sidewalls, and over them a great quantity of plaster had been spread [cisterns were lined with waterproof lime plaster]. Limestone rock in its natural state is porous, and water would seep through the sides of these cisterns], and every part of the work had been carefully carried out" (Epistle of Aristeas, 89-90; tr. R.H.Charles, 1913, II,103). He goes on, saying that 'subterranean reservoirs extend to a distance of 5 stadia round the Temple (over 3,000 feet; actually more, they did not, wisely, show him everything!), that they have innumerable ducts and pipes for the regulation and distribution of waters, with many secret openings known only to the servants of the holy house, through which the abundant waters wash away the blood of the sacrifices.'

Tacitus (Hist.v.12) also writes, giving further secular confirmation, that beneath the Temple area exists "A perennial fountain of water, mountains excavated underneath; likewise fish ponds and cisterns."

So we can truly say there were vast quantities of water before the Most Holy, the Mercy seat, the throne of God, "like the sea in abundance" (Ecclesiasticus 50:3). This fact was used in visions recorded in Revelation, the use of imagery drawn from the earthly Jerusalem in order to describe the heavenly, and also reproduces some of the features of Ezekiel's vision of the holy waters (see Rev.22:1,2,14; 4:6; NIV).

One cistern occupies part of the SE corner below the Temple itself and lines up with the Foundation Cornerstone at the SE corner of the Temple platform. This cistern is of importance and is of a curious cruciform shape, it has the shape of a cross, and is called the Cross Cavern. It contains a long passage running in the direction of the Most Holy, under which there is a natural cavern. Over the Cross Cavern stood the Altar of Burnt Offering, connected by what was called the Blood Passage to the cavern under the Most Holy. In other words sacrificial blood coursed its way underground from the Altar, passed the Most Holy, and then on out of sight. It is Jesus laying down His life, entering the Heavenly and presenting His sacrifice to His Father (Heb.9:12-24).

According to the account given in the Talmud there was another channel for the offal of the sacrifices, so that by means of sluices of water, all the unwanted parts of offerings were carried off through subterranean passages, to be completely hidden from sight. It has also been discovered that water still flows under the site of the Most Holy with water from the Gihon Spring, a stream of clear water is still issuing under the Temple Hill. The Spring is also not dependent on rain, or drought, it never, ever dries up. It is perennial, ever flowing. In fact it has been witnessed to rise in level during drought. Twenty-five feet below the valley surface it is still flowing, a fitting symbol of Him who imparts everlasting, never-ending waters of life. It is also interesting to note that one of the Rivers that issued from the Garden of Eden which faced East, was also called the River Gihon (Gen.2:10,13). The Temple itself was positioned facing East, like the Garden of Eden, East from where the Spring issued, and facing the rising of the sun, for God and Christ are the Light and the Life of the world.

KW