Birket Israel

Birket Israel (trans. Pool of Israel) also Birket Israil or Birket Isra'in,^[1] abbreviated from Birket Beni Israìl (trans. Pool of the Children of Israel) was a public cistern located on the north-eastern corner of the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem. The structure is believed to have been built either in the Late Roman or the Umayyad period^[2] for use as a water reservoir and also to protect the northern wall of the Temple Mount. Hackett attests that Arab locals knew it by this name in 1857.^[3]

By the mid-19th century it had gone out of use as a reservoir; being partly filled with rubbish and reused as a vegetable garden. In 1934 it was filled in and is now known as el-Ghazali Square. It is currently in mixed use for shops, as a car park, and as a transshipment point for refuse.