Pool of Siloam

Associates for Biblical Research:

Currently, two archaeological treasures are being unearthed in Jerusalem. One is the Pool of Siloam at the southern end of the City of David, and the other is the excavation and restoration of the Pilgrimage Road connecting the Pool of Siloam with the Temple Mount. There are a number of references to pools in both the Old and New Testaments. In 2 Kings 20:20, we read, “. . . he [Hezekiah] made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city [of Jerusalem] . . .” (NIV). This is the famous “Hezekiah’s Tunnel,” also referred to in 2 Chronicles 32:30: “It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon Spring and channeled the water down to the west side of the city of David . . .” (NIV). The route of Hezekiah’s Tunnel is well known. It starts at the Gihon Spring and follows a winding route 1,750 feet southward, ending at a small reservoir. Traditionally, this reservoir has been related to the “waters of Shiloah” (Is 8:6), the “Pool of Shelah” (Neh 3:15), and the “pool of Siloam” (Jn 9:1–11). Excavations in the late 19th century, however, determined that the reservoir was constructed in the fifth century AD in conjunction with the Church of Siloam, built to commemorate Jesus’s miracle of healing the blind man. Nothing earlier than the church was found. (Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron, “The Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem of the Late Second Temple Period and Its Surroundings,” in Unearthing Jerusalem: 150 Years of Archaeological Research in the Holy City, ed. Katharina Galor and Gideon Avni [Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2011], 241–55.)

Biblical Archaeology Society:

During construction work to repair a large water pipe south of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, at the southern end of the ridge known as the City of David, archaeologists Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron identified two ancient stone steps. Further excavation revealed that they were part of a monumental pool from the Second Temple period, the period in which Jesus lived. The structure Reich and Shukron discovered was 225 feet long, with corners that are slightly greater than 90 degrees, indicating a trapezoidal shape, with the widening end oriented toward Tyropoeon valley.

Illustration from Shalom Kveller, City of David Archives