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The Gihon spring gushes forth from the opening beneath the medieval steps leading down to this natural cave. The earliest residents of Jerusalem settled on the narrow eastern ridge known today as the City of David because of its proximity to the spring, Jerusalem’s only source of freshwater.

During a wartime siege, it would have been dangerous to go out of the city and walk down to the spring in the Kidron Valley. Recent excavations suggest that safety was ensured by a combination of underground tunnels and massive aboveground towers.