The Warren's Shaft-City of David, Jerusalem.

Discovered by a British officer, Sir Charles Warren in 1867, the 'Warren's Shaft' is an artificial water harvesting system of ancient Jerusalem made during biblical or pre biblical periods. The purpose of the system was to access the City's only fresh water source-the Gihon Spring. Today, part of the City of David Park, the term "Warren's Shaft' actually refers to a system with four parts and not just a shaft alone: the stepped tunnel, the horizontal curved tunnel, the 14 meter vertical shaft and the feeding tunnel. The total length of the system is 41 m and it descends 13 m.

How old is this system? The archaeologists date the shaft from the period of Canaanites (18th Century BC), i.e even before King David. For a long time, the 14 meter deep vertical passage of "Warren's Shaft" was believed to be the Joab's Tsinnor- the water shaft through which Joab climbed and launched a surprise attack on Jerusalem for King David (2 Samuel 5:8). However, archaeological excavations in the 1990s exposed two massive towers of enormous stones protecting a very deep rock-cut pool next to the Gihon Spring. The massive towers were sufficient to protect the Gihon spring and the pool from enemies and there was no need for a secret shaft to draw water from the spring. Thus based on these discoveries, some assume that the Warren's Shaft is only a natural fissure in the rock and has nothing much to do with the biblical water channel!