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Jerusalem Archaeological Park
The Temple Mount walls
 
Site 8: The Drains Under the Paved Street

Two drains run under the paved street. The lower of the two is wider and has higher sides; it channeled rainwater from the entire street to the area of the 'King's Garden' south of the city (see Tour 2, Site 33).


The lower drain ran along the street at a depth of six meters below the paving stones. Its lower part was hewn into the rock, its upper part was stone-vaulted; its height is twice that of an average person. This was presumably the main channel that drained surface runoff from the paved street, perhaps also excess water from the streets of the Upper City. The water flowed along the drain to Birkat al-Hamra, one of the large reservoirs to the south of the city, at the confluence of the Tyropoeon and Kidron Valleys (see Tour 2, Site 33).
The drain was first discovered by Charles Warren; two of the shafts sunk by him cut through the drain - the shaft next to the southwest corner of the Temple Mount and the one near the pier of Robinson's Arch (see Tour 1, Site 9). In the future, visitors will be able to descend to the drain through one shaft and exit from the other. The drain on the upper level is approximately one and a half meters below street level. Only a small section has been exposed to date near the corner of the Temple Mount, on the west side of the street. At that point drainage was provided by a stone paving-slab, with parallel grooves to channel rainwater into the drain.
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