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Ecc_2:5-6
The manner of this statement suggests that the pleasure-grounds and pools of water, or reservoirs, were exhibited together—the reservoirs in or near, and for the use of, the pleasure-grounds. It is accordingly observable that certain important reservoirs, which have been from remote times ascribed to Solomon, and regarded as those which he mentions here and in the Song of Songs, are found in connection with a proper situation for a pleasure-ground at an easy distance from Jerusalem, and corresponding very closely to the intimation which Josephus affords respecting the favorite country retreat of Solomon. The historian says, “There was, about fifty stadia from Jerusalem, a certain place called Ethan, very pleasant in fine gardens, and abounding in rivulets of water, whither he [Solomon] was wont to go every morning, sitting on high in his chariot.”
The reservoirs regarded as marking this site, and known as “The Pools of Solomon,” lie south of Bethlehem, upon the usual route from Hebron to Jerusalem, and about six miles from the Holy City. They lie at the south end of a small valley, and below them is another valley, narrow and rocky, about two miles in length, terminating in a close ravine, and shut in by high hills which rise as straight as palisades. The cultivable soil in the bottom of this valley varies in width, but rarely exceeds a hundred yards, and the rocks rise abruptly on either side. At somewhat more than a quarter of a mile, occurs the lower portion of a quadrangular building of rough stone-work, thirty feet by twenty-one, the walls of which are six feet thick, and a small pipe, three inches in diameter, passes out on the side next the pool, but no other passage out can be discovered. A short distance beyond this, the valley is set with fig-trees, vines, and olives, the proprietors of which inhabit some rude huts on the left, where are also some ruined arches of stone. The rock below these rains is cut into various forms, and from its foot issues a transparent spring, which, passing onward in a copious stream, winds through the valley, irrigating and fertilizing it in its course.
This valley is conceived to be the site of the gardens here mentioned, and more especially of the “enclosed garden” of Solomon’s Song (Son_4:12), whence, indeed, the valley got from Latin travellers and monks the name of Hortus Conclusus.
Travellers are less agreed as to the probability that this valley was Solomon’s than that the pools were his—but if the pools were his, the gardens were surely likely to be in their near neighborhood; and considering how much the oriental princes affect complete seclusion in their retreats, the remarkable manner in which this valley is shut in, would have been likely to recommend the site, in spite of the natural disadvantages which some ascribe to it, but they are scarcely qualified to form an opinion, after the place has known so many ages of neglect. Maundrell, who is one of those who adhere to the pools, but distrust the gardens, says, “One may safely affirm, that if Solomon made them in the rocky ground which is now assigned for them, he demonstrated greater power and wealth in finishing his design, than he did wisdom in choosing the place for it.” But a far better judge, the Swedish naturalist, Hasselquist, declares, “The place will admit that Solomon might have formed a garden here, though it is not by nature an agreeable situation, being in a bottom; but perhaps this great prince might choose to improve nature by art, as many other potentates have done. The fact, however, is, that a valley kept always verdant by an abundant supply of water from living springs, and enclosed by a rocky fence, offered peculiar advantages which could hardly elsewhere be found, within an easy distance from Jerusalem.” Apart from the confined situation, which, in an oriental point of view, would be an advantage, the spot really possessed peculiar fitness for a pleasure-ground, especially with one who, as Solomon, was likely to take an interest in the culture of exotic plants, the seeds of which might have been brought to him by his ships. Mariti says, “Nature has still preserved its original fertility in the valley of Hortus Conclusus. Although but little cultivated, the soil still produces a tolerable supply of cotton and various kinds of grain—there are also fine plantations of fruit-trees, affording the most juicy fruits in the country. Various flowers, and many fragrant plants grow there naturally at all seasons, among which are thyme, rosemary, marjoram, salvius, persil, rue, ranunculuses, and anemones.” An older traveller (De Breves), who looked about as a philosopher, bears similar testimony, and though he was there in the heat of summer, he describes the valley as “always green;” and besides the plants just named as reared by nature’s own kindly hand, he adds oranges, citrons, and pomegranates, to the fruits that grow there. To this it is interesting to add, that here may be found various rare plants not to be found elsewhere in Palestine, and which, as an old traveller (Zuallart) suggests, may not impossibly have been self-propagated from exotic plants which Solomon introduced into his gardens. This is a point of some interest, well worth the investigation of some traveller acquainted with botany. He might make a full list of all the plants he found there, and strike out such as he afterwards met with in other places.
In regard to the pools, they are sunk in the side of a sloping ground, so that they are on a distinct level, one above the other, and capable of containing a large body of water. They are so constructed, both by conduits leading from the one to the other, and by what may be termed anastomosing branches, that when the water in the upper one has reached a certain height, the surplus flows into the one below, and so on to the third. They are all lined with a thick layer of hard whitish cement, and a flight of steps leads to the bottom of each. The lowermost pool is considerably the largest, measuring 589 feet by 169, and 47 feet deep to the water’s edge. The water escapes by passages worn in the hill, and below the conduits intended for it, into the gush beneath. Above the highest of the three pools, the water is supplied from a small chamber of masonry, which is supposed to be the “spring shut up,” the “fountain sealed,” of the Song of Solomon. It has a narrow entrance, and has the appearance of having been once closed by a stone door. Into this building rush several streams, conducted from springs that rise among several of the neighboring hills, and flowing still in probably as much abundance as when the conduits were first made.
The artificial pools thus receiving their supply of water from natural springs, send it forth through stone channels. The intension of them, therefore, obviously is, to hoard up and reserve this natural supply, so that, when conveyed through its conduits to Jerusalem, it should be equable in quality, as well as free from the sediment which the three pools in succession, ranging one above the other, would detain. A well-laid canal carried this supply, in a tortuous course, to the reservoirs at Jerusalem; it passed on the northern slope of the hill of Evil Counsel, into the valley of Hinnom, to its exit in the Upper Pool of Gihon. Originally, the natural springs which furnish this supply of water, seem to have been collected into one stream, which must then have formed a considerable rivulet, that running through this valley, finally discharged itself into the Dead Sea.
The road from this place, as far as Bethlehem, follows the track of the aqueduct which conveys the water to Jerusalem, and afterwards crosses it in several places. It is small, but the water runs in it with considerable rapidity, though, from the tortuous course which it takes in following the different sinuosities of the ground, sometimes above, and sometimes below the surface, it is difficult to feel assured that it does not go uphill, as some have supposed.