The Sebil in the junction of Alaa a-Din and Hagai Streets

A public water facility that was built under the order of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, combined with repetitive patterns of decorations from the Middle Ages. The inscription indicates the year of construction (1537). During the rule of this sultan, the Ottoman Empire thrived and flourished. The sultan did a lot for the development of Jerusalem, renovated its water supply system, and built the sebils for the benefit of the city’s residents. The sebils were meant to provide water for the daily needs as well as the purification customs of the believers, and they were beautiful architectural features in the alleys of old Jerusalem. Private sebils were built in residential houses throughout the old city, as well as in education and religious institutions. Most of the sebils were connected to the lower aqueduct from the times of the Second Temple, which supplied water from Solomon’s Pools to the pools in the Temple Mount, and to channels that split from it. The sultan renovated the ancient aqueduct in order to fill the water pools in the Temple Mount. A channel was attached to the aqueduct, named “The Sebil Aqueduct” (Kanet El Sebil), and it filled the sebils. Storage containers were built for most of the sebils, filled by the Sebil Aqueduct, and attached to the back of the sebils.