Cistern Interior

View of the interior of one of the large cisterns that supplied water to the palace/fortress of Machaerus.  This huge cistern is about 20 ft. [6 m.] high and 80 feet [25 m.] long.

Cisterns were sometimes used as prisons—see Jeremiah 38:6–13 —and it is possible that John the Baptist was imprisoned in one of the cisterns of Machaerus.

This image courtesy of Mark Connally.