Page 160 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

146 Archaeological Review

Fig. 163 the Carmel ridge, in upper Nah. al Tanninim. Also
added to the aqueduct was a shaft tunnel that
The Tunnel of the Lower Level drains high ground water from Nah. al Snunit.
Aqueduct, view to the north. Channels A and C were operative until the
To the left the Upper Level Muslim conquest.
Aqueduct, on arches, can be
seen In time, when the outlets to the sea of Nah. al
Tanninim and Nah. al cAda were dammed (see
below, the Circular Route) and a large lake
formed between the Carmel ridge and the kurkar
ridge to the west of it, the aqueduct of arches on
the east of Jisr az-Zarqa became enclosed by the
lake, near its southern edges. This new situation
caused the sinking of its foundations, so it was replaced by a bypass, carried also
on arches. The channel borne on these arches is Channel D. Eventually, three
terra cotta pipes were placed in it, as well as in Channel C. A Greek inscription
dates the bypass to the year 385 – in the time of Flavius Florentinius, the Roman
proconsul of Palestine.
The course of the Upper Level Aqueduct within the city walls is not known.
The assumption is that it continued south along the city wall, on its top, but its end
point – presumably at the city’s reservoirs – is unknown. A network of lead and
terra cotta pipes that supplied running water to private houses, bathhouses, public
latrines, and fountains was laid after the Herodian era.
The Lower Level Aqueduct (Fig. 163), 5.5 km long, began in Nah. al Tanninim
Lake north of the city. At first it was a rock-cut channel 3.5 m wide and 3 m high,
and continued in a sandy area beyond the kurkar ridge, southward to Caesarea,
in the form of a vaulted tunnel 1.8 m wide and a maximum height of 2 m. One
tradition relates that the Muslim army secretly penetrated into Caesarea through
this water tunnel.
The Lower Level Aqueduct reached the city at an elevation of c. 6 m a. s. l., so
it could only provide water to areas in the city lower than that. Inside the wall the
aqueduct continued as a broad, open channel that could be traced along a few dozen
meters. Perhaps it carried water to industrial installations such as mills for cutting
stone and other mills as yet unearthed. Examinations determined, indeed, that the
water from the lake that fed the aqueduct was too salty to be used for drinking, so it
was intended for agriculture and industry. According to another opinion its purpose
was to flush out silt that accumulated in the basin of the Inner Harbor.

The Sculpture Garden to the East of the Eastern Crusader Gate

To the east of the parking lot outside the gate, within an events garden, there
is a narrow, long esplanade, like a street, that stretches from south to north. In
scholarly parlance it is known as the “Byzantine Esplanade”. Shmuel Yeivin
uncovered it in 1951. The southern section, bordered on right and left by walls