Hezekiah's Tunnel (Siloam Tunnel) and Siloam Pool
נִקְבַּת חִזְקִיָּהוּ · Siloam Tunnel · Shiloah · Hizqiyahu Tunnel
Iron Age II (Judahite Kingdom, late 8th c. BCE)·Judahite Israelite (Hezekian Jerusalem)·🇵🇸 Jerusalem Governorate, City of David, Silwan, Palestine
About
About Hezekiah's Tunnel (Siloam Tunnel) and Siloam Pool
701 BCE by King Hezekiah to protect Jerusalem's Gihon Spring water during Sennacherib's Assyrian siege (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chr. 32:30). Like Samos but two generations earlier, two teams hewed from Gihon and Siloam ends and met near centre (90-cm offset) following a natural karst joint guided by hammer acoustics; Siloam Inscription (now Istanbul) carved 6 m before meeting describes “the call of a man to his fellow... axe against axe”. 06% grade) feeding the Siloam Pool reservoir 50×60 m where Jesus' healing of the blind man occurred (John 9).
Gradient maintained by biblical-ship levelling and oil lamp soot guides still visible on ceiling.
Why it mattersEarliest precisely dated two-ended tunnel in Levant proving Iron Age Israelite engineering contemporary with Phoenicians; biblical archaeology keystone linking text to stratum.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Acoustic method for S-curve without line-of-sight
- 02Why Siloam inscription 6 m before meet not at meet
Theories
- 01Followed 0.06% karst joint measured by water bowls
- 02Inscribed at lunch break where teams first heard each other
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.701 BCE under Hezekiah (regnal 715–687 BCE)
- Period
- Iron Age II (Judahite Kingdom, late 8th c. BCE)
- Culture
- Judahite Israelite (Hezekian Jerusalem)
- Builders
- Royal engineers of King Hezekiah ben Ahaz of Judah
- Purpose
- War-time water security diverting Gihon Spring inside city walls during Assyrian campaign
- Abandoned
- 586 BCE Babylonian destruction but tunnel reused through Byzantine and Ottoman to present as water conduit
- Rediscovered
- 1838 Edward Robinson; 1880 Siloam Inscription discovered by schoolboy
- Excavation
- Excavated
701 BCE
Hezekiah hews tunnel before Sennacherib siege (2 Kgs 20:20)
1880
Conrad Schick finds Siloam Inscription 6 m from meet
1910
Weill clears Siloam Pool Byzantine widenings
On the ground
Structures & features
31.7730° N · 35.2350° E · 635 m · 3 mapped features
Gihon Spring Portal
portalHezekiah's hewn entry with Warren's Shaft bypass
31.7755° N · 35.2365° EMeeting Point and Inscription Niche
meeting90-cm offset S-bend 6 m from original inscription findspot
31.7735° N · 35.2350° ESiloam Pool Reservoir
reservoirByzantine-stepped 50×60 m pool fed by tunnel at south end
31.7710° N · 35.2340° E
Gallery