Image Details

The sketch depicts an ideal mikveh, similar to those discovered during excavations of Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter in the 1970s. The dashed horizontal lines just left of center indicate a pipe that connected the main immersion pool at right to the otzer, or reservoir pool, at left. The drawing also shows another common feature of mikva’ot: a divided staircase, with one side used by those descending into the mikveh and the other by those emerging in a purified state.