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NATHAN STEINMEYER, BAS

SPRING TOWER. Possibly built by the Canaanites during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000–1550 BCE) and then heavily renovated by the Judahite kings in the late ninth century, this tower was designed to protect the waters of the Gihon Spring. Emanating naturally at the base of the city’s southeastern ridge, the spring was Jerusalem’s main water source until the Hellenistic and Roman periods, when aqueducts were built to bring water from surrounding regions. Built with massive boulders, the tower and its system of fortifications are by far the most monumental structures yet found in pre-Roman Jerusalem. Some believe the Spring Tower should even be identified with the biblical Millo (and not the Stepped Stone Structure), where the city’s residents may have come to fill their water containers safely and securely.