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Grasping the rung of a rope ladder, BAR editor Hershel Shanks climbs up Warren’s Shaft, finally convinced that this 52-foot subterranean hole was never used in a surprise attack on ancient Jerusalem. As related in the accompanying article, many people have long considered the shaft the leading candidate for the Biblical tsinnor, or watershaft, described in 2 Samuel 5:8 as the entry point into the unsuspecting city for David’s general Joab. But not only is Warren’s Shaft practically impossible to climb unaided, it was never used to draw water.