Hezekiah's Pool
Encyclopedia
Hezekiah's Pool located in the Christian Quarter
Christian Quarter
The Christian Quarter is one of the four quarters of the ancient, walled Old City of Jerusalem, the other three being the Jewish Quarter, the Muslim Quarter and the Armenian Quarter...

 of the Old City of Jerusalem, was once a reservoir forming part of the city's ancient water system. the pool is dry and surrounded by buildings on all sides. Josephus Flavius referred to the pool as Amygdalon, meaning ‘almond tree’.

The pool is supposed to be the one referred to in , and there is a belief that this is the upper pool where King Hezekiah met messengers from the king of Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...

. At a later time it was fed from the Mamilla Pool
Mamilla Pool
Mamilla Pool is one of several ancient reservoirs that supplied water to the inhabitants of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is located outside the wall's of the Old City about 700 yards northwest of Jaffa Gate in the center of the Mamilla Cemetery. With a capacity of 30,000 cubic meters, it is...

, one of the three reservoir
Reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...

s constructed by Herod the Great
Herod the Great
Herod , also known as Herod the Great , was a Roman client king of Judea. His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis." He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his...

during the 1st century BCE. by an underground conduit which still partially exists.

The pool is also known as the Pool of Pillars, or the Pool of the Patriarch’s Bath (in Arabic: Birkat Hammam el-Batrak).

The pool is 240 feet (73.2 m) by 140 feet (42.7 m) in size, with an estimated capacity of nearly 3000000 gal. The bottom of the pool is cemented and leveled natural rock.
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