Mamilla Pool

Mamilla Pool
بركة مأمن الله - بركة ماملا (Arabic)
Birket Mamilla
Mamilla pool in Jerusalem, 2005
Interactive map of Mamilla Pool
31°46′40″N 35°13′14″E / 31.77778°N 35.22056°E / 31.77778; 35.22056
TypeAncient reservoir
LocationJerusalem
History
BuiltUnknown (possibly Herodian or Byzantine period)
Site notes
MaterialStone, cement
Height19 ft (5.8 m)
Length316 ft (96 m)
Width218 ft (66 m)
Public accessYes

Mamilla Pool (also known as Birket Mamilla) is one of several ancient reservoirs that supplied water to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. It is located outside the walls of the Old City about 650 metres (710 yd) northwest of Jaffa Gate in the centre of the Mamilla Cemetery. With a capacity of 30,000 cubic metres, it was connected by an underground channel to Hezekiah's Pool in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. It was believed to have received water via the Upper or High-Level Aqueduct from Solomon's Pools, but 2010 excavations discovered the aqueduct's final segment at a lower elevation near the Jaffa Gate, so functioning as feeding source for the Mamilla Pool seems unlikely.

Etymology

Birket Mamilla, 1854

There are a number of theories on the origin of the name Mamilla. John Gray writes that it may be a corruption of the Hebrew word for 'the filler' (m'malle'), though that is uncertain.According to Vincent and Abel, the name of the pool may be derived from a Byzantine-period woman, Mamilla being a Latin female name, possibly abbreviated from Maximilla. They mention in this context a 9th-century pilgrim who wrote that the pool was named after a pious matron, Mamilla, the wife of Thomas, who survived the 614 fall of the city. This they find to be plausible, conceding that there was no proof for the connection as of 1922. They further speculated that she might have sponsored the construction of the pool in a year of drought, for the benefit of the quarter adjacent to the Church of the Resurrection. Pringle concurs in 1993 with Vincent & Abel that it is more likely that the church was named after the pool, rather than the other way around, a theory proposed for instance by George Williams and Robert Willis in 1849, who saw the pool named for a church that once stood near the pool and dedicated to Saint Mamilla or Babila.

Yet another theory is that the name comes from the Arabic for "water from God" (ma'e min Allah).

History

The original date of construction is unknown. Biblical scholar Edward Robinson speculated that the pool may have been the Upper Pool mentioned in the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 36:2), seeing that it is the only pool situated on the highest ground outside of Jerusalem, and entraps the runoff waters of the upper watercourse of the Hinnom valley. Others have speculated that it may have been the Serpent's Pool mentioned by Josephus.

Roman period

A Herodian construction date, proposed by older researchers, has been disputed by more recent studies, which attribute the construction to the Byzantine period.The older theory is based on the fact that during the rule of Herod the Great (37–4 BCE), improvements were made to the water supply system in Jerusalem. It posits that two new pools constructed during his reign, the Pool of the Towers and the Serpent's Pool (Birket es-Sultan or Sultan's Pool), were fed by the Mamilla Pool via aqueducts. Itzik Schwiki of the Jerusalem Center Site Preservation Council attributes the construction of the Mamilla Pool itself to Herod.

Byzantine period

The theory that the pool was built during the Byzantine period was upheld by researchers for at least a century.Following the Persian capture of Jerusalem from the Byzantines in 614, local Jews were said to have aided the Persian forces and carried out a massacre of Christian prisoners near Mamilla pool.While the figures may be exaggerated and impossible to verify, Israeli archaeologist Ronny Reich estimates a death toll of 60,000 before the Persian authorities stopped the killing.According to the eyewitness account of Strategius of St. Sabas, "Jews ransomed the Christians from the hands of the Persian soldiers for good money, and slaughtered them with great joy at Mamilla Pool, and it ran with blood." The Sulha al-Quds, the treaty of Jerusalem's capitulation to Muslim forces in 638, in which the Christian Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem required that the Arab ruler Umar protect the people of Jerusalem from the Jews, can only be understood in this context.

Crusader period

During the period of Crusader rule over Jerusalem in the 12th century, Mamilla pool was known as the Patriarch's Lake, and the Pool of Hezekiah inside the city walls that it fed was known as the Pool of the Patriarch's Bath.

19th century (late Ottoman period)

Throughout the late Ottoman period, the area around the pool was a burial ground, as attested to by the numerous Muslim tombstones.

In the 19th century, Horatio Balch Hackett wrote: "At the distance of several hundred yards we come to another pool, Birket el-Mamilla, generally supposed to be the Upper Gihon of Scripture, (Isaiah 36, 2.) This reservoir is still used, and on the ninth of April contained three or more feet of water. It is about three hundred feet long, two hundred wide, and twenty feet deep. It has steps at two of the corners, which enable the people not only to descend and fetch up water, but to lead down animals to drink. It is customary, also, to bathe here."

20th century

Wildlife at Mamilla pool
A staircase descending into Mamilla pool

In the 1940s, the British authorities poured concrete into the bottom of the pool to prevent seepage, but water eventually stopped flowing into it, and the pool fell into disuse. During the War of Independence, when Jerusalem was under siege, the collected rainwater was an important water source for local residents.

In 1948, under the Absentee Property Law, management of the site was transferred to the Religious Services Ministry. In 1958, the surrounding area became a public park. Today, the pool is Jerusalem's last remaining "winter pool" (vernal pool) filling with rainwater during the winter months.

Dimensions

The pool's dimensions as recorded by Edward Robinson in the mid-19th century give a depth of 18 feet (5.5 m), a length of 316 feet (96 m), and a width of 200 feet (61 m) at its western end and 218 feet (66 m) at its eastern end. In 2008, the dimensions are given as 291 feet (89 m) x 192 feet (59 m) x 19 feet (5.8 m). Scholars have noted that a cistern at the bottom, below the lower end of a Mamilla pool, leads to a staircase that ends in a small room. There is a drainage pipe, measuring 53 cm in diameter at the exit of the pool and is later reduced to 23 cm, and which once allowed the flow of water into the city to be regulated.

Ecosystem

With the first rains, the pool hosts an ecosystem of frogs, crustaceans and insects. In the spring, it becomes a haven for migrating birds.In 1997, a previously unknown species of tree frog was discovered in the pool. The researchers named their find Hyla heinzsteinitzi, in memory of Israeli marine biologist Heinz Steinitz. Hyla heinzsteinitzi is now associated with H. japonica. As of 2017, the species was assumed to be extinct.However, while renovations of the site were being discussed in 2026, two large toads of this species were found in the pool.

References

  1. ↑ Avraham Negev, Shimon Gibson (2005). Archaeological encyclopedia of the Holy Land (Revised, illustrated ed.). Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 9780826485717.
  2. ↑ Robert Walter Stewart (1857). The tent and the khan: A journey to Sinai and Palestine. Oliphant, Hamilton, Adams.
  3. ↑ Asem Khalidi (Spring 2009). "The Mamilla Cemetery: A Buried History". Jerusalem Quarterly. 37. Archived from the original on 2022-02-03. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
  4. 1 2 Jerome Murphy-O'Connor (2008). The Holy Land: an Oxford archaeological guide from earliest times to 1700 (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-19-923666-4.
  5. ↑ Wilke Schram (2013). "Pools of Jerusalem". Roman Aqueducts. Retrieved 2014-12-15.
  6. 1 2 Gurevich, David (November 5, 2020). "The Enigma of the High-Level Aqueduct to Jerusalem and the Mamilla Water System". Tel Aviv Journal. 47 (2): 268–281. doi:10.1080/03344355.2020.1820057. S2CID 226263091. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  7. ↑ A history of Jerusalem, John Gray, Praeger, 1969, p. 49
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Pringle, Denys (1993). "Cemetery Chapel of St Mamilla (No. 330)". The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus. Vol. 3, The City of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press. pp. 217–220 [217]. ISBN 0521390389. Pringle cites Vincent and Abel.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Vincent, Louis-Hugues; Abel, Félix-Marie (1922). "Sainte-Mamilla". Jérusalem: Recherches de topographie, d'archéologie et d'histoire. Vol. 2 (2nd part). Paris: Librairie Victor Lecoffre. pp. 868–71 [869–70].
  10. ↑ George Williams and Robert Willis (1849). The Holy city: Historical, topographical, and antiquarian notices of Jerusalem, Volume 1. J. W. Parker. pp. 65–66.
  11. ↑ Around Agron
  12. 1 2 Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the Year 1838. Vol. 1. Boston: Crocker & Brewster. pp. 483–484. OCLC 989455877.
  13. 1 2 Schiller, Eli, ed. (1988). Charles Wilson - Jerusalem the Holy City (צ'רלס וילסון - ירושלים העיר הקדושה) (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Ariel. p. 125. OCLC 745100584.
  14. ↑ Schiller, Eli, ed. (1988). Charles Wilson - Jerusalem the Holy City (צ'רלס וילסון - ירושלים העיר הקדושה) (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Ariel. p. 126. OCLC 745100584.
  15. ↑ Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (1982). International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E-J (Revised ed.). Eerdmans. pp. 1024–1025. ISBN 9780802837820. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  16. ↑ Schwiki, Itzik (February 8, 2005). "The Total Experience from Dismantling and Rebuilding Teaches that This is a Highly Dubious Way of Preservation" (in Hebrew). 02net. Archived from the original on March 26, 2005. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  17. ↑ Idinopulos, Thomas A. (1991). Jerusalem blessed, Jerusalem cursed: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Holy City from David's time to our own. I.R. Dee, Chicago, p. 152.
  18. ↑ Horowitz, Elliott S. (2006). Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence. p. 229.
  19. 1 2 3 "Massacre at Mamilla". Jerusalem Post. 2 March 2006.
  20. ↑ Pierotti, Ermete (1864b). Customs and traditions of Palestine: illustrating the manners of the ancient Hebrew. Translated by T.G. Bonney. Cambridge: Deighton, Bell, & Co. pp. 115–118. OCLC 1253816803.
  21. ↑ Illustrations of Scripture: suggested by a tour through the Holy Land By Horatio Balch Hackett, Heath & Graves, 1856, p. 269
  22. ↑ Around Agron
  23. ↑ Ancient Muslim graves and rare toads: The fight over renovating Jerusalem's Mamilla Pool
  24. ↑ The Land of Israel; A Text-Book on the Physical and Historical Geography of the Holy Land Embodying the Results of Recent Research, Robert Laird Stewart, 2008. Page 214
  25. ↑ Hidden Treasures in Jerusalem Archived 2017-01-06 at the Wayback Machine, the Jerusalem Tourism Authority
  26. ↑ Gvoždík, V., Moravec, J., Klütsch, C., Kotlík, P. (2010) Phylogeography of the Middle Eastern tree frogs (Hyla, Hylidae, Amphibia) as inferred from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA variation, with a description of a new species. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 55: 1146-1166.
  27. ↑ Who's to blame for disappearance of a new species of amphibian?, Ofri Ilani, Haaretz, 2007
  28. ↑ Grach, Plesser, and Werner, 2007, A new, sibling, tree frog from Jerusalem (Amphibia: Anura: Hylidae), 41: 714.
  29. ↑ Ancient Muslim graves and rare toads: The fight over renovating Jerusalem's Mamilla Pool

Further reading