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When it was first installed, the miqveh (see photograph) would have resembled this reconstructed view. A reserve pool (otzar), left, of ritually pure water is separated from the immersion pool by a wall. This wall contains a pipe (shown with a broken line) that can be opened to allow contact between the water in the two pools, thus making the water in the immersion pool ritually pure. This pool complex even has a small room adjoining the immersion pool with a bathtub for everyday hygienic bathing.

Skilled builders filled the Upper City with imposing homes in the first century B.C. and the first century A.D., until the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70. Nearly every house in this important residential quarter overlooking the Temple Mount had a private miqveh.