Another Once Upon A Time In Jerusalem – and this time, the Mamilla Pool, photographed in 1856.
The Mamilla Pool is located in what is today Independence Park, between Ben Sira Street and Agron Street, across from the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem, formerly the Palace Hotel.
Construction of the pool began as far back as the Byzantine period, and because of its relatively low topographical location, it collected rainwater flowing from the area that is now the center of modern Jerusalem.
The pool is 6.5 meters deep and covers an area of approximately 6,300 square meters.
It served as a water reservoir from which water flowed through an aqueduct that ran beneath what is today the Mamilla Mall promenade, all the way to Hezekiah’s Pool in the Old City.
Hezekiah’s Pool, located in the Christian Quarter near today’s Jaffa Gate, was a reservoir excavated during the Second Temple period and filled with rainwater during the winter.
Near the Mamilla Pool, a Muslim cemetery was established, containing dozens of graves belonging to notable figures from the Mamluk period – judges, wealthy dignitaries, and rulers of that era.
Distinguished people, but still dead.
With the beginning of Jerusalem’s expansion beyond the Old City walls toward the end of Ottoman rule in the Land of Israel, a commercial district began developing around the pool, in the area of today’s Ben Sira Street.
The pool also became the site of a scientific discovery:In 1997, a new species of tree frog, known in everyday language simply as a frog, was discovered there. It was the first amphibian discovered in Israel after decades.
The frog was even given the popular name “The Mamilla Tree Frog.”
And ever since, Jerusalem’s bachelors have wandered around the Mamilla Pool, searching for a rare frog in the puddles left behind after the winter rains. And if they happen to find one, they kiss it in the hope that it will turn into a princess, put on high heels, and walk straight to the Mamilla shopping boulevard, while the echo of her heels rises above the ancient aqueduct that once carried water from the Mamilla Pool to Hezekiah’s Pool.
In most cases, they’re left holding a sticky frog in one hand, but still with money in their pocket.
A Shabbat Shalom to those near and far from Jerusalem, and may we hear good news.
Photograph by Auguste Salzmann.
