Binyamin's Pool

Binyamin's Pool is a rectangular stone reservoir built in 1891 in Zikhron Ya'akov, on Hameyasdim Street. It stored water lifted from the nearby spring by a 12-horsepower steam engine, the first of its kind in the settlement. Two large copper tanks on its roof created pressure to feed street fountains and later farmhouses. A Hebrew inscription on its front names Baron Edmond de Rothschild and Yaakov Ben Shmuel.

The reservoir was built in 1891 under Yaakov Ben Shimol, manager of the Zikhron Ya'akov colony, and named after Baron Abraham Benjamin Edmond James de Rothschild. Before it existed, residents carried water from the spring near the winery in barrels. A 12-horsepower steam engine, the first of several, then raised spring water up the hill into the pool.

The pool sits on Hameyasdim Street, the main path through the old settlement, where visitors see historic buildings and narrow walkways. The place reflects how early residents organized their community and depended on water systems to survive.

The pool stands on the pedestrian Midrachov HaMeyasdim, so it is reached on foot; the roof has an observation point looking over Zikhron Ya'akov, Shefaya, Bat Shlomo and the coast from Haifa to Hadera. Renovation work is under way as part of a conservation project, so parts of the structure may be closed off.

The reservoir's facade carries a Hebrew inscription honouring Baron Edmond de Rothschild and naming Eliahu Scheid and Yaakov Ben Shmuel; below it, three taps and a trough once watered people and livestock. A lookout on the roof takes in Zikhron Ya'akov, Shefaya, Bat Shlomo and the coast from Haifa to Hadera.