More about old Jerusalem,
And this time, the Sultan’s Pool, a photo from the early 1960s. The Sultan Pool is a storage pool built by the first Ottoman Sultan in 1536. The pool was used by the wealthy people of Jerusalem as a hammam. Sultan Habib also rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem to protect the city’s residents, and repaired and renovated a variety of water reservoirs throughout the city, such as the Gaia Ben Hinnom reservoir. The sultan only restored the pool built during the Second Temple that was mistakenly called Solomon’s Pools, but there is really no connection to King Solomon. The aqueduct leading to Jerusalem began near today’s settlement of Efrat, and water went through tunnels and shafts to the Old City and reached the pilgrims who went to the Second Temple.
The Sultan’s pool was built by using a dam that stored the city’s rainwater preventing it from draining south into the Kidron stream, which eventually reaches the Dead Sea. During the hot summer days, the reservoir dried and offered space to organize a market where animals were sold.
Between the War of Independence and the Six-Day War, the pool was a no man’s land between Israel and Jordan. After the war, the area was reorganized and today it is used as an open theater, lying before the walls of the Old City and the Tower of David.
Dire Straits opened their world tour “Brothers in Arms” in 1985 there offering a special performance with an international flavor that the city had never seen before. After the legendary Mark Knopfler, touched the chords three times, the wooden boards that enclosed the pool from the Cinematheque’s direction were removed, and people who had no tickets enjoyed the sounds of the amazing guitarist. Later, Eurythmics gave a performance there with Annie Lennox in a pink bathing suit bra, just the right outfit for a place that used to be a pool. Other great artists such as Leonard Cohen, Eric Clapton, Sting, Madonna, Bob Dylan, and more brought joy to fans in the same place. Israeli artists also performed in the former pool.
I remember that during a performance of Shalom Hanoch, we were sitting on the grass and the sewer cover next to us was suddenly lifted. Three wet and smelly boys came out and blended into the crowd, but one could easily identify them by their smell. During a Shlomo Artzi concert, the gates were broken after two songs, and a stream of people flowed into the pool, as four shocked and helpless security guards were left staring at the crowd who was dancing under the moonlight, among cypresses.
This is our Jerusalem – a mix of old and new, an aqueduct for Temple immigrants that was later used as a bath for the wealthy Ottomans, then as a place where animals were sold during the hot months of July and August, where Annie Lennox was seen sunbathing near Bat Sheva in the pool and the sound of King David’s violin was accompanied by the guitars of Clapton and Knopfler and the blessing of priests and the great Leonard.
Shabbat of peace to the far and near from Jerusalem
Photographer – unknown
