They drove up the steep hill and turned left where they arrived in the parking area the lay between the Church of the Nativity and a mosque.
The first written reference to Jesus Christ’s birthplace in Bethlehem is given in the writings of St. Justin Martyr in the middle of the second century AD. A church was built on the spot by Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine following the Council of Nicaea when Constantine ordered it to be built to celebrate of the Nativity of Christ in 326AD. It was burnt down in a revolt in 529AD and was replaced by the present church built by the Emperor Justinian, and is the only important church in the Holy Land that has survives intact from early Christian times.
They entered the fortress like church through the small entrance in the massive wall and walked through the broad colonnade of the nave to the curtained marble doorway polished with age to a stairway that led down to the cave. They entered dimly light Grotto of the Nativity through a pair of Gothic doorways behind several visitors and a guide, from the ceiling were suspended numerous lamps that emitted a dim red light where an altar draped with ornate hangings stood over the sacred spot where Jesus was born.
The stone floor was polished by the countless feet of pilgrims and visitors over one and a half millennium. Beneath the altar a silver star with fourteen points according to the guide set in a stained marble plinth surrounded by ancient oil lamps marked the exact spot of the divine birth, the visitors advance and knelt to touch it.
O’Connelly sceptically observed them from one side, after the moved to the second altar that marked the spot where the manger stood, he hesitated then quietly approach the star and bent down to reach out to the glass centre piece.
As he touched it he was suddenly filled with a huge and explainable surge of emotion to the point he had to slip into the shadows to recover his senses before rejoining the others. He had touched the spot where the Christ was said to have been born the focal point of Western Civilization Later he learnt many visitors to the holy site were overcome by the same feeling, perhaps it was the weight of history he reasoned, it was some time before he had the courage to tell Laura of his emotion.
Later destroyed, the church was rebuilt by Justinian in 530 AD, in which form the church remains today. The Persians spared it during their invasion in 614 AD because, according to legend, they were impressed by a representation of the Magi that decorated the building.
Their itinerary was first Bethlehem, then Masada before crossing into Jordan, where they planned an overnight stop in Amman before setting out the next day for Petra. Solomon’s Pools were just three or so kilometres to the south of Bethlehem in the Judean Hills, reservoirs that had once supplied the aqueducts that carried purifying running waters to the Temple in Jerusalem, constantly replenishing the great cisterns that had been cut into the heart of the Temple Mount in ancient times.
After Jerusalem they headed in the direction of Bethlehem, the site of the nativity that lay in Palestinian territory, it was a short drive of about ten kilometres south of Jerusalem. After several army check points they reached Bethlehem, one of the most prosperous towns in Palestine. The birth place of Jesus Christ was a major tourist attraction with a large number of visitors throughout the year and like all such sites it was filled with all the souvenir shops and commercial activity that tourists attract.
The town was situated at about 760 metres altitude surrounded by rolling hills that stretched eastward to the Judean desert offering a spectacular views of an ancient landscape of vine yards, olive trees and tiny villages.
Solomon’s Pools lay to the south of Bethlehem on the main road to Hebron a city that according to David Elquayam had been continuously inhabited for at least 3000 years.
‘It is the Biblical Sanctuary of Abraham or Tomb of the Patriarchs, where it is believed that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are buried, it is also according to the Bible,’ Elquayam said smiling with incredulity, ‘the place of King David’s anointment, as you can imagine it is regarded by Muslims, Christians and Jews as a most holy site. As a matter of fact for Muslim’s, it is the fourth most holy place in their religion and according to them was visited by Mohammed on his night flight to Jerusalem.’
They nodded, not all sure what he meant by a night flight to Jerusalem. The only night flight that O’Connelly remembered was a club of the same name in Moscow.
‘We’ll visit Hebron later, here we’ll turn off to the left,’ he said pointing to a sign. They were about five kilometres south of Bethlehem when they took a road through a fertile region that led up to an old Ottoman fort, Murad’s Citadel or Qalat al-Buraq, the Fortress of the Pools. They arrived in a park where the left the Toyota and followed Elquayam over the rocky path that led up to the first of three large water reservoirs. It was surrounded by a surprisingly green wooded park of tall conifers in contrast to almost parched biblical landscape of the road from Jerusalem. The morning was already hot and the only relief from the sun was under the dark green pines that certainly drew their sustenance from the pools cut into the rock.
‘This is the Lower Pool, together the pools were used to collect spring and rain water from the surrounding hills and was carried to Jerusalem by gravity in a series of aqueducts totalling sixty kilometres long, today the pools still supply Bethlehem and local needs.’
The first reservoir looked more like an outdoor swimming pool, it seemed incredible that it had been there for well over two thousand years.
‘The pools are composed of three large reservoirs arranged in cascade, each separated from the other vertically by a height of a few metres and a distance of about fifty metres, the smallest reservoir is situated at the highest level and the largest reservoir at the lowest level.’
They looked uphill and saw the other two pools against the blue sky and the trees. The site gave an idyllic appearance.
‘As you can see these reservoirs were cut into the rock in rectangular forms, more or less constant the same width and are reinforced in places by stonework and masonry.’
They could see the three pools were situated in steps each a few metres above the other and partly built in stone. Laura clicked away with her camera photographing the details from every angle as Elquayam continued his commentary.
‘Solomon’s Pools are fed by Ain Etam, which is in fact a group of springs, Ain Etam, Ain Salih, Ain al-Burak, and Ain Farruja situated in the surrounding area. The Etam Spring is the most important, altogether they can hold up to 160,000 cubic meters of water.’
O’Connelly whistled as he tried to compare the figure with something more tangible, one hundred metes long by one hundred metres wide and sixteen metres high.
‘Why are they called Solomon’s Pools?’
‘In reality these pools as we see them today were probably built by Herod the Great when he rebuilt the Temple. There are different stories about the name, it probably comes from a biblical reference in Ecclesiastes to the Preacher, the son of King David, who some believe was King Solomon, and who said: I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.’
‘But you don’t think Solomon existed,’ said Laura with a hint of accusation in her voice.
‘As I said there is absolutely no archaeological proof of his existence or that of David’s.’
‘It’s very green here,’ replied Laura changing the subject.
‘As you can see when this area was administered by the Jordanian government there was a forestation program. More recently it has been developed for tourism by the Palestinians. They plan to set up a centre called Solomon Pools Resort started with a Convention Centre Project.
They have been renovating pools and the Ottoman fort that built in 1617 by the Turkish Sultan Suleyman Al-Qanouni, but with the continuation of the Palestinian troubles there’s been problems. Tsahal has shelled the buildings causing a great deal of damage.’
‘You don’t approve?’
‘Look I’m an archaeologist not a politician. I can’t approve damage to an archaeological site by any army.’