The Holy Land and Syria

by Frank G. Carpenter

The Pool of Hezekiah, opened by an ancient Hebrew king in the city of Jerusalem, is fed by a fountain in the hills. Not until the British came did the city have an adequate water-supply. One old Arab said, “For four hundred years, the Turks did not give us so much as a cup of cold water”

Palestine has no woods. There are no groves or bushes. Almost the only trees are fruit trees, with now and then a funereal cypress in a garden. Our consul tells me that the country has two groves which the people call forests. One of these contains forty scrub oaks and the other is not quite so large. He says that a few years ago there was some brush on the hillside, but that the people have even dug up the roots and sold them for fuel.

Indeed, fuel is one of the most costly things in this country. It is so expensive that it is seldom used except for cooking, and that notwithstanding the fact that the climate is cold. Wood is so valuable that the older olive trees are being cut down, and it is feared that the olive orchards will gradually disappear. These old trees are often of considerable thickness, but they are only twenty or thirty feet tall so that one will supply but a small amount of firewood. The olive tree is as hard as the apple and far more knotted and gnarly. Its wood is heavy and is sold by the ton. It is brought in on the backs of donkeys and camels and every stick has to pay a tax before it gets inside the gates of Jerusalem.

A common fuel is charcoal, made mostly of olive wood. It is made chiefly at Hebron, about twenty-three miles south of Jerusalem, near the cave where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are buried and where tradition says Adam died. Hebron, which is about five hundred feet higher than Jerusalem, has big orchards of olives, almonds, and apples, the brush and the dead wood of which are used to make charcoal.

The use of coal is almost out of the question on account of the high rates over the railroads. The same charge is made for carrying coal as for carrying silk. Such coal as comes here is in the shape of briquettes and sells for high prices.

Another lack from which the Holy Land suffers is water. The rainfall in the southern sections is something like six inches and upward a year, the amount gradually increasing as one goes northward toward Galilee. The country has always been one of pools and wells, and every house in Jerusalem has its roofs so made that they drain into cisterns placed in the courts. In dry seasons water is sold, and the man who has a spare cistern gets a big price for his surplus.

Nearly all the wells of the olden times remain, and are pointed out by the dragomans. One can drink from the well where Christ met the Samaritan woman, and from many cisterns scattered over the country. Most of them are shaped like great pears.

When the pools of Solomon were connected with Jerusalem it was thought that they would supply the city with water. These pools are on the highlands between Bethlehem and Hebron. They are cut out of the solid rock, and it is said that they originally held about forty million gallons. There are three of them, ranging in height from three hundred and eighty to five hundred and eighty feet. They lie in terraces one above the other, being of varying widths. The depths are from twenty-five to fifty feet. If they were in good condition they could supply a vast deal of water, but as it is, the aqueducts which Solomon built to Jerusalem have gone to ruin, and there is now only a four-inch iron pipe running from them to the city. The pipe comes in near the Dung Gate and goes from there to the temple platform. I stumbled over it the other day. I am told that the water is used almost altogether for the Mosque of Omar, although it is connected with the fountains of the city, which are only occasionally allowed to play.

In addition to these pools there are many others in and about Jerusalem. The Pool of Hezekiah is in the heart of the city, not far from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; and the Pool of Siloam, where Our Lord sent the blind man to wash, is in the valley of Jehoshaphat, outside the walls.

Just now the Holy Land is suffering from drought and the people are praying for rain. We have had one or two showers in the last few days, but more is needed or the crops will fail. Most of the inhabitants of Jerusalem are great believers in prayer, and Mohammedans, Christians, and Jews are all holding services at which they ask the Lord to send water.