The electron density distribution of the solvent in the cubic insulin crystal structure, which occupies 65% of the volume, has been mapped from 1.7-A resolution diffraction data by an iterative difference Fourier method, using the previously determined protein structure as the refinement restraint. Starting with phases from the protein and a flat solvent model, the difference map calculated from the data was added outside the protein envelope, and the modified map was then used to recalculate phases for the iterative refinement. Tests of the method with model data, with the experimental data and a variant protein model, and by carrying out a partial refinement of the solvent map demonstrate that the refinement algorithm produces reliable values for the solvent density within the noise level of the data. Fluctuations in density are observed throughout the solvent space, demonstrating that nonrandom arrangements of the water molecules extend several layers from the well-ordered hydration shell in contact with the protein surface. Such ordering may account for the hydration force opposing close approach of hydrophilic surfaces and other long-range water-dependent interactions in living structures.