Does Jacobs well still exist in Israel?

Abuna (meaning Father) Ioustinos, a Greek Orthodox priest from Nablus, later spearheaded a huge reconstruction project. Jacob's Well has since been restored and a new church modelled along the designs of the Crusader-era church houses the well inside it, in a crypt on a lower level.



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Photini Church, a Greek Orthodox church located in Nablus, Palestine. The church is built over Jacob's Well. The well is in the lower crypt of the church.

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The well takes an initial plunge through 23 feet of well-lit water to an apparent bottom, but then it veers off into a descent of increasing darkness. I visited with Gregg Tatum who has logged over 250 dives there. He says it is no place for a novice.

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Temperature of the water in Jacob's Well remains a near-constant 68°F and visibility is typically excellent. The spring provides habitat to numerous species of fish (principally sunfish and perch); turtles; aquatic insects; crustaceans; and, most notably, the cave-adapted Fern Bank salamander (Eurycea pterophilia).

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For the second year in a row, the iconic spring-fed swimming hole has stopped flowing, the consequence of drought and overpumping. It was a scorching day in July 2022 when I last peered into Jacob's Well. In a sense, I had come to pay my respects.

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There are no bats, of course, but there are catfish, perch, turtles – at the beginning of the cave – and then deep in, there are blind Texas salamanders to keep you company. You can't scuba dive there without a special permit from Hays County, and the only entity that has one is the Jacob's Well Exploration Project.

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