Inasmuch as the sacred narrative makes it evident that all the rivers in question took their origin from the head waters of the Eui>hrates and the Tigris, we must refer the Gihon to one of the streams of the same region, namely, the lake system of Central Armenia, in the vicinity of Lake Van. As the Euphrates and Tigris flow soutiierly, so we may naturally conclude that by the Pison and Gihon are intended rivers .flow- ing northerly, jn-obably one towards tlie Caspian, and the other towards the Euxine. No bettor representa- tive of the Gihon can be found in this region than the Araxes ('Apag>/t) o^ antiquity, which, as we have seen.
to this da)' bears the same name among the Arabs. This is a large river in Armenia Major, which takes its rise from a number of sources in Mount Abus (the present Bin-Gol), nearlj^ in the centre of the space be- tween the east and west branches of the Euphrates (Strabo, p. 531 ; Pliny, vi, 10; Ptolemy, v, 13; § 3, 6, 9). The general course maj' be described as east, then south-east, and, after flowing in a north-easterly direc- tion, it resumes its south-east course, and, after its junction with the Cyrus (Kur), it discharges itself into the Caspian Sea (Col. IMonteith, in the London Gcnrjr. Journ. vol. iii). It is the modern Arras (Smith, Did. of Class. Geoijr. s. v.). See Eden.
2. A fountain near Jerusalem, to which the voung Solomon was taken to be anointed king (1 Kings i, 30, 38), out of sight, but witliin hearing of En-rogel, with the cit}' between (ver. 9, 41), but its direction is not indicated. Subsequently Hezekiah "stopped the up- per water-course [or upper outflow of the waters] of Gilion, and brought it straight down to the west side of the citj' of David" (2 Chron. xxxii,30; xxxiii, 14). This was, perhaps, on occasion of the approach of the Assj'rian army under Sennacherib, when, to prevent the besiegers from finding water, great numbers of the people labored with much diligence in stopping the water of tiie fountains without the city, and in partic- ular of ''the brook that ran through the midst of the land" (2 Chron. xxxii, 3, 4). The author of the book of Sirach (xlviii, 17) also states that " Hezekiah brought water into the midst of the city; he dug with iron into the rock, and built fountains for the waters." The fountain of Gihon is also mentioned by Josephus as lying outside the oMy {Viwu, Ant. vii, 14, 5). From a comparison of these passages, the editor of the Picto- rial Bible (on 2 Chron. xxxii) arrived at the conclu- sion, since confirmed by Dr. Robinson (^liesearckes, i, 313), that there existed anciently a fountain of Gihon on the west side of the city, which was "stopped" or covered over by Hezekiah, and its waters brought by subterraneous channels into the city. Before that time it would naturalh' have flowed down through the valley of the Gilion, and probably formed the brook which was stopped at the same time. "The fountain ma}' have been stopped, and its waters thus secured very easily by digging deep and erecting over it one or more vaulted subterranean chambers. Something of the very same kind is still seen in the fountains near Solomon's Pools beyond Bethlehem, where the water rises in subterranean chambers, to wliich there is no access except down a narrow shaft like a well. In this wav the waters of Gihon would be withdra'mi from the enemy and preserved in the city, in which they would seem to have been distributed among va- rious reservoirs and fountains." From all these cir- cumstances there seems little room to doubt that an open fountain, called "the fountain of Gihon," did anciently exist on the west side of the cit}', the waters of which may still continue to flow bj' subterranean channels down to the ancient Temple, and jierhaps to Siloam. This fountain was probably near the present U^ppcr Pool, in the valley west of Jerusalem. This Upper Pool is a large tank, which is dry in summer, but in the rainy season becomes full, when its waters arc conducted b}' a small, rude aqueduct or channel to the vicinity of the Jafi'a Gate, and so to the Pool of Hezekiah -within the citj' (Robinson's Hesearckes, i, 352, 512-514). Mr. Williams (Hoi;/ City, ii, 480) sug- gests another route for the water in question, namely, that the upper spring of Gihon once had its issue on the north side of the city, not far from the tombs of the kings, where its waters were originally received into a basin called the Serpent's Pool, and thence flowed down the valley of Jehoshaphat. This upper outflow Hczekiali stopped, and brought the water by an aqueduct down the Tyropoeon to the Temple, whence the surplus flowed off" by an old channel to the fountain of the Virgin, and was continued through
GIHON
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GILBERT DE LA PORREE