הַמְשַׁלֵּחַ מַעְיָנִים בַּנְּחָלִים בֵּין הָרִים יְהַלֵּכוּן
God sends the springs into the valleys, between the mountains. (Psalms 104:10)
Jerusalem was built on a 10 to 15 acres spur of limestone today known as City of David. The original city was established here because of Jerusalem’s only fresh water source—the Gihon Spring—and because the long, narrow hill is protected on three sides by deep valleys.
We came to know that in the Iron age the City of David was served by three main water channels all interconnected and emanating from the Gihon Spring: The Siloam Channel, the Hezekiah’s Tunnel and the Warren’s Shaft.
These complete waterworks of the ancient city were one of its strength to provide a regular supply of water for agriculture and domestic purposes not only in time of peace but also in time of war.
About 2,500 years ago, the Canaan ancestors discovered water dripping out of the rock where water-permeable limestone lies atop the impermeable clay. They then took hammer and chisel and chipped away at the strata, coaxing a steady flow out of the rocks. The outcome is a man-made cave and tunnel, and a pool filled with delicious mountain water called Maayanot, or springs.
Israelis, tourists and Palestinians, where accessible, spend their summer times bathing in these tubs of cold natural spring water and they do so in their own very original, personal style.
Some of these springs are recognize as mikve as well, or holy bathing pools used by religious, orthodox Jewish men and women at different times to submerge before the Shabbat. They come there dressed with their Yeshiva clothing and often bathe only in their underwear. Some religious women will loose their head covering just for this or sometimes bath with it. Then you see the seminar school children who bring pick-nick and hookahs to smoke and spend all day long by the water source fussing around and playing with friends outside of the very strict summer school program.
You also run into the Russian immigrant who is on summer vacation to visit her relatives who have moved to the Holy Land decades ago and she has been invited here to learn Hebrew in the summer time.
Or else you see families with their children who take a study/work break to have a family dip before dinnertime. Lovers also come and take a break from the summer heat and sharing some private time by the water as well.
