the name given to three large open cisterns at Etam, at the head
of the Wady Urtas, having an average length of 400 feet by 220
in breadth, and 20 to 30 in depth. These pools derive their
chief supply of water from a spring called "the sealed
fountain," about 200 yards to the north-west of the upper pool,
to which it is conveyed by a large subterranean passage. They
are 150 feet distant from each other, and each pool is 20 feet
lower than that above it, the conduits being so arranged that
the lowest, which is the largest and finest of the three, is
filled first, and then in succession the others. It has been
estimated that these pools cover in all a space of about 7
acres, and are capable of containing three million gallons of
water. They were, as is generally supposed, constructed in the
days of Solomon. They are probably referred to in Eccles. 2:6.
On the fourth day after his victory over the Ammonites, etc., in
the wilderness of Tekoa, Jehoshaphat assembled his army in the
valley of Berachah ("blessing"), and there blessed the Lord.
Berachah has been identified with the modern Bereikut, some 5
miles south of Wady Urtas, and hence the "valley of Berachah"
may be this valley of pools, for the word means both "blessing"
and "pools;" and it has been supposed, therefore, that this
victory was celebrated beside Solomon's pools (2 Chr. 20:26).
These pools were primarily designed to supply Jerusalem with
water. From the lower pool an aqueduct has been traced conveying
the water through Bethlehem and across the valley of Gihon, and
along the west slope of the Tyropoeon valley, till it finds its
way into the great cisterns underneath the temple hill. The
water, however, from the pools reaches now only to Bethlehem.
The aqueduct beyond this has been destroyed.
Pools of Solomon
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