3-021-504 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Explorations at Jerusalem: rock-cut tunnel near the Fountain of the Virgin, 1869. 'There is a passage about 1700 ft. in length from this intermittent spring to the Pool of Siloam, which has been thoroughly explored by Lieutenant Warren. One of his letters gives an account of the difficulties he met with in this very disagreeable, if not perilous, task. The height of the passage diminishes in going up from Siloam till in some places it is not more than 16in. or 20in. high; so that Lieutenant Warren, Sergeant Birtles, and a fellah, or Arab labourer, with them, were obliged to lie flat on their backs, and to crawl along, with the measuring instruments, pencil, and note-book, carried in one hand and a lighted candle held in the mouth, through a foul stream of water, sometimes 12 in. deep; they were four hours in making the passage, and might have been drowned by a sudden rising of the water. The larger tunnel cut through, the rock, was discovered by Lieutenant Warren, in October, 1867...All these passages, canals, and shafts are cut in the solid rock, the nature of which is a hard silicious earth, called mezzeh, except near the top of the shaft, where the rock is soft and decayed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.