The vast cisterns under the Temple Hill are among the most important of inodern discoveries. Some are of modern construction, and others, from their form, are very ancient. No less than thirty five of these cisterns have been explored and ex amined. Many are of great depth, and their com bined capacity is about ten million gallons. They are connected by passages, tunnels and ducts, so that the Temple Hill bencath the surface is hor,ey combed by a network of vaults and cisterns. The largest and best known is the Great Sea, capable of holding three million gallons. It is mentioned in the book of Ecclesiasticus (i :3). While it is dif ficult to fix the exact age of these cisterns of the Temple Hill there is abundant evidence to prove that Solomon constructed the reservoirs south of Bethlehem known as Solomon's Pool, the ori ginal aqueducts that conveyed their water to the Sacred City, and we may confidently believe that the reservoirs under the Temple area were contem poraneous with these other remains of the water system built by Solomon. (See cut, page 419.) (17) The Virgin's Fountain. A spring,
called the Virgin's Fountain, in the valley of the Kedron, opposite the village Siloam, flows by a channel cut out of the rock through the Hill of Ophel and issues at the pool of Siloam, the most celebrated of those mentioned in the Scriptures (Neh. Hi:15; Luke xiii :4; John ix:7, etc.). This pool is a little lower than the Virgin's Fountain and the excavations about the pool and the tun nel leading to the fountain are likely the work of King Hezekiah. During the reign of that monarch Shalmaneser, of Assyria, threatened Jerusalem. Hezekiah rebuilt' the broken-down walls of the city, raised towers, and 'took counsel to stop the waters of the fountains without the city' (2 Chron. xxxii :4). This language applies completely to the diverting of the water from the Virgin's Fountain by the tunnel to Siloam; for before this was done this spring would empty into the valley of the Kedron and could be used by sol diers outside the walls. So that there exists good reason for referring this work to the reign of Hezekiah. (King, Recent Discoveries on Temple