Image Details
David Amit
The Upper Aqueduct, constructed by the Tenth Roman Legion, channeled water from a reservoir called (incorrectly) Solomon’s Pools, 6 miles south of Jerusalem, to their headquarters inside Jaffa Gate. The names of legion commanders were found incised into stone pipe sections.
About a mile of the aqueduct (including this section near Bethlehem) was composed of pipe formed from carved interlocking stones (see photograph). The Roman water system connected with a sophisticated aqueduct designed earlier by Hasmonean engineers to replenish Solomon’s Pools with water from springs south of Bethlehem; under the Hasmoneans, water traveled from Solomon’s Pools into Jerusalem along the Lower Aqueduct, which ended at the Temple Mount.