The network of tunnels beneath the Temple Mount has been the subject of much mystery and controversy, but the cisterns – some of which are linked to biblical sources – are just as fascinating.
BY NADAV SHRAGAI
"The Cave Beneath the Holy Rock, Jerusalem" by Carl Haag, 1859. Pencil and watercolor on paper. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
(July 18, 2021 / Israel Hayom) Like a well-kept secret, the cisterns of the Temple Mount are concealed, barred and padlocked by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf. In ancient times, the cisterns refreshed pilgrims arriving at the Temple. A few originally functioned as shaft graves or quarries from which stones were carved to build the Temple, filling with water only years later.
According to archaeologists’ calculations, to transport 26,417 gallons of water from the Gihon Spring 2,624 feet to one small cistern on the Mount would have taken at
