Gihon Spring

For the river in Genesis, see Gihon. For the Jerusalem waterworks comapany, see Hagihon. For the Okinawan king, see Gihon (Ryukyu).
Gihon Spring
Fountain of the Virgin
Illustration of Gihon Spring
Illustration of Gihon Spring ("Upper Fountain of Siloam") in David Roberts' The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia
Map
LocationJerusalem
Eruption height636 m

Gihon Spring (Hebrew: מעיין הגיחון) or Fountain of the Virgin,[1] also known as Saint Mary's Pool,[2] is a spring in the Kidron Valley. It was the main source of water for the Pool of Siloam in Jebus and the later City of David, the original site of Jerusalem.

One of the world's major intermittent springs – and a reliable water source that made human settlement possible in ancient Jerusalem – the spring was not only used for drinking water, but also initially for irrigation of gardens in the adjacent Kidron Valley, which provided a food source for the ancient settlement.

Gihon
Spring
Kidron
Valley
City of David
Temple Mount
Pool of Siloam
The image above contains clickable links
Model of historical City of David in the Israel Museum
The Valley of Gihon

The spring rises in a cave 20 feet by 7,[3] and is located 586 yards (535 m) northwards of the Pool of Siloam.[2] Being intermittent, it required the excavation of the Pool of Siloam, which stored the large amount of water needed for the town when the spring was not flowing. Before the sinking of the water table due to overpumping in modern times, the spring used to flow three to five times daily in winter, twice daily in summer, and only once daily in autumn. This peculiarity is accounted for by the supposition that the outlet from the reservoir is by a passage in the form of a siphon.[3] It has the largest output of water in the area – 600,000 cubic meters of water a year (compared to 125,000 cubic meters for the Lifta spring in West Jerusalem.[4]

The spring is under the control of the Israeli organization Ir David Foundation ("El'ad");[5] it is sometimes used by Jewish men as a sort of ritual bath (mikvah).[6]

  1. ^ Berrett, Lamar C. (April 1996). Discovering the World of the Bible. Grandin Book Company. ISBN 9780910523523.
  2. ^ a b A.H. Sayce, "The Inscription at the Pool of Siloam", Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement 13.2 (April 1881): (editio princeps), p. 72
  3. ^ a b Easton's Bible Dictionary 1897
  4. ^ Planned Western Wall train will threaten historic Jerusalem spring, report says, Haaretz
  5. ^ "Archaeology and the struggle for Jerusalem". bbc.co.uk. BBC News. 2010-02-05.
  6. ^ Nir Hasson, "Settler organization granted control over spring in East Jerusalem", Haaretz, 12 June 2012