Set in a valley in the hills south of Jerusalem, near Bethlehem, Solomon's Pools are among the most impressive hydraulic works of the ancient Near East. Three reservoirs, arranged in a descending chain and partly cut into the rock, partly built of massive masonry, were designed to collect water from springs and winter rains and to release it into aqueducts that carried it north towards Jerusalem — supplying the city and, in antiquity, the Temple complex itself. The popular name attaches them to King Solomon; the surviving construction reflects later periods of major engineering, and the system was maintained, repaired and extended over many centuries, by Roman, Islamic and Ottoman administrations in turn. Walking the embankments today, the sheer scale is the argument: stepped stone sides descending into still green water, channels, sluices and inspection points, and the line of the aqueduct traceable across the surrounding slopes. Filmed in 4K with aerial coverage that reveals the chain of basins in a single shot, the programme tells a story that is technical, political and strikingly modern — how a city is kept alive by water it does not possess.
