The Carmelite order began with 12th century religious hermits, who, imitating the prophet Elijah who sometimes took refuge in a cave, organized themselves in caves on the Carmel Mountain in Haifa during the Crusader occupation.
Pools of Bethesda
Located near the Lion’s Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem, the “pools of Bethesda” supplied water to the First and Second Temples until Herod the Great’s time. Baths and a healing center were located near the pools. These very baths are where the healing miracle of Jesus took place; they are described as having happened in the pools of the Bethesda sheep market. In later years, a Byzantine basilica was built over parts of the pool. Next the Crusaders built a small chapel over its ruins and a larger basilica, St. Anna Church, nearby.
Aside from the miracle of healing, the pools are remarkable for their sophistication. The reservoirs, based on a dam that collected rain from water flowing in the valley, were designed to direct the water from the lake to the Temple in an open channel. By the time of the Second Temple, a second pool was constructed in order to increase the capacity and the two pools were connected by a central dyke and columns were added around them both. It became an even more popular healing center. Excavations that began in 1956 have unearthed ruins that belong to the period of the Second Temple and can be seen, if with a bit of difficulty, at the bottom of the pit.
Herod the Great constructed a new water system to the north of Bethesda, making the twin pools of earlier days obsolete and by 44 AD Herod Agrippa built a new wall in the area, blocking he water entirely and the pools were converted for other purposes.
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