The Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered the main aqueduct that conveyed water to the Temple Mount and also served as the principal water supply to the Sultan’s Pool, during an excavation carried out prior to the construction of the Montefiore Museum in Mishkenot Sha’ananim. The ancient aqueduct supplied pilgrims and residents with water for drinking and purification.

Most tourists and locals are familiar with the Sultan’s Pool as a venue for the annual International Hutzot Hayotzer Arts and Crafts Fair (held every August) and other cultural events. However, for hundreds of years it was one of the city’s most important water reservoirs.

According to Dr. Ron Beeri, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “We are dealing with a very impressive aqueduct that reached a height of three meters. Naturally, one of the first things Sultan Suleiman I hastened to do in Jerusalem (along with the construction of the city wall as we know it today) was to repair the existing aqueduct which supplied the large numbers of pilgrims who arrived in Jerusalem with water for drinking and purification. Suleiman attached a small tower to the aqueduct, inside of which a ceramic pipe was inserted. The pipe diverted the aqueduct’s water to the Sultan’s Pool and the impressive sabil (a Muslim public fountain for drinking water), which he built for the pilgrims who crossed the Derekh Hebron bridge and is still preserved there today”. Four phases of different aqueducts, all constructed in exactly the same spot, have been uncovered, one Byzantine from the sixth-seventh centuries CE and three Ottoman ones, built in the early sixteenth century CE, encircling a large subterranean water reservoir.”

The low-level Aqueduct is one of two ancient water conduits that originated at the springs in the Hebron Highlands and at Solomon’s Pools, and terminated in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Research has shown that the ancient aqueduct was meant to supply high quality spring water to the Temple Mount, to Jerusalem’s residents and to the many pilgrims that have come to the city over the course of generations. After the Great Revolt was suppressed and the temple was destroyed, the aqueduct served the Tenth Legion and afterwards Aelia Capitolina, which was Roman Jerusalem. The aqueduct was also used during the period of Christian-Byzantine rule and throughout the years when Muslims governed in Jerusalem. According to Dr. Beeri, “We can see that from the time of the Second Temple until the Byzantine period, water flowed in an open channel that was covered with stone slabs. In later phases, beginning in the Ottoman period, water was conveyed in ceramic pipes which were installed inside the aqueduct”.